Police search Maryland school after report of gun in backpack

LEONARDTOWN, Md. -- Officers in riot gear searched four locked-down schools Friday after a student and his grandmother reported seeing someone put a handgun in a backpack and approach the building.

No weapons were found, but some students at the school complex said they feared for their lives during the seven-hour lockdown and kept thinking of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado.

"Everybody was really scared and worried," said senior Chris Laney, 17.

Leonardtown High School was locked down along with an adjoining middle school, a technical school and an alternative learning school.

The student and grandmother who reported the gun said they thought it was another student who brought it into the school, but they were unable to identify him inside the school building.

Students were patted down and searched during the lockdown, County Sheriff David D. Zylak said.

School staffers and deputies escorted the students to buses starting shortly after 1 p.m. as armed officers guarded the halls. The buses began leaving school and parents were allowed to pick up their children about two and a half hours later.

Police searched the empty buildings again with dog teams, but found nothing.

One girl was taken away by ambulance after suffering an anxiety attack, and two construction workers found behind the school were taken into custody on unrelated charges of illegal substance possession, Zylak said.

St. Mary's County Public School system officials referred calls to county government officials, who could not immediately be reached by telephone.

Leonardtown is in southern Maryland, about 50 miles southeast of Washington.