High school and middle school on lockdown as police investigate threat of violence

A Maryland high school and middle school were placed under lockdown due to a “threat of possible violence,” but their hold status has since been lifted after the threat was deemed “non-credible” by authorities.

Severna Park High School was put under investigation due to the possible violence threat on Tuesday morning, the Anne Arundel County Police Department said on X.

The police say that the middle school was also put under lockdown.

There is no evidence of weapons inside the school on school property, but heavy police presence was spread throughout the area while officers investigated the reported threat.

In an update around an hour after the schools were reported to be under lockdown, the police department said that all investigative leads deemed the threat to be “non-credible.”

The hold status that was placed on Severna Park High School and Middle School, along with two other schools which are also within the Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) system, the Benfield Elementary and Broadneck High School has now been lifted, the police said.

All schools are within over a two-mile radius of each other near Severna Park, apart from Broadneck High School, which appears to be located in Cape St Claire.

While the latter three schools were put under a hold status first, Severna Park High School’s status was also changed to on hold at around 10.46am, after police started to collaborate with the school, Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) said on X.

While under the hold status, no one in the schools was allowed to move about the building nor enter or leave the schools, but AACPS said all students and staff were safe.

AACPS added in an update at 11am that school staff will be retrieving students from around the schools to be returned to their families after the hold status at the four schools was lifted.

The AACPS is the fourth largest school system in Maryland, and the 36th largest in the United States.

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