BEL AIR, Md. — The response to Bel Air High School on May 9 was instantaneous.

“My daughter’s in there,” Kristopher White told us as he stood on the edge of the school’s property, “She’s a junior here. She’s sending us messages.”

In a small, tight-knit community, virtually everyone ran towards the perceived threat and no one chose to retreat.

“A gentleman told me that there was an adult with a gun that walked into the school,” added White.

Bel Air Police Chief Chuck Moore says a call to a national hotline passed along to the county’s emergency center detailed the actual threat.

“They were going to harm some people in the school. They were in the bathroom and that they were suicidal. They had a knife,” recounted Moore.

While the threat proved to be false, the enormity of the response

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