Police officers raced to the school. Some students trembled as they crouched in corners trying to hide. A few staff members began to pray.

“We really thought we were not going home that night,” one teacher said. “It was probably the worst feeling I ever had in my life.”

Less than a week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., a lockdown exercise on Tuesday morning at Public School 79 in East Harlem caused alarm, as not everyone understood there was to be a drill.

On Wednesday, Marge Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the New York City Education Department, said only, “We are looking into how this drill was conducted.” The school’s principal, Greer Phillips, declined to comment.

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P.S. 79, the Horan School, serves 300 students with special needs, including those with severe emotional disabilities, autism, cerebral palsy and other disorders. The students range in age from 12 to 21, one staff member said.