Howard County Police React to Perry Hall Shooting: An 'Isolated' Incident

After a was reported Monday morning, Howard County police said officers assigned to schools are proceeding as usual. 

“The police department has been in touch with the security team at the school system today,” Sherry Llewellyn, spokeswoman for Howard County Police Department (HCPD), told Patch. "We will not be changing...standard operating procedures as a result of this morning’s incident, as it appears to be isolated."

in the back at  on the first day of school.

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At Perry Hall High, a school resource officer was present and two teachers were able to overpower the gunman, officials said.

The school was evacuated, the wounded student was flown by helicopter for medical treatment and police reportedly had a suspect in custody Monday afternoon.

In Howard County, a police officer is assigned to each of the 12 high schools within the Howard County Public School System, said Llewellyn. “Our [officers] will continue to be in the schools, all day, every day, monitoring activity,” said Llewellyn.

HCPD said it does not screen students for weapons.

The Board of Education adopted a policy as of July 2012 that bans all weapons on school campuses, defining weapons as guns, firearms, martial arts weapons (e.g., nunchucks and throwing stars), chemical spray, poison, knives, tasers, explosive devices and "any implement, visible or concealed, possessed under a circumstance that would reasonably lead a person to believe it was a weapon or would be used as a weapon."

According to the policy, the penalty for violating the rule is expulsion for one year.

Lillian Lowery, Maryland State Schools Superintendent, was in Annapolis when she learned about the Perry Hall shooting from a reporter.

"We send our students to school to be safe and this is a horrible way to start a school year," Lowery . 

At least one episode of school violence made headlines in Howard County last year.

A fight outside in Columbia was captured in a online. One individual involved in the Long Reach fight, who was not a student, is .

Annapolis Patch Editor Anna Staver and Perry Hall Patch Editor Emily Kimball contributed to this report.

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