Accidental gun shot fired at Albert Einstein High School

At around 11:30 a.m. yesterday, April 9, a gun was accidentally discharged during an alleged gun sale in a bathroom at Albert Einstein High School, according to MCPS Student Member of the Board (SMOB) Ben Moskowitz. At 1:30 p.m., the school was put into a Code Red alert for the remainder of the day; students returned to a normal school day today. Einstein Assistant Principal Elizabeth Burrell declined to comment on the situation.

Moskowitz said that at least 10 students have been arrested in the case, and that the gun discharger himself was a freshman at the school. The older students will be tried as adults. Security cameras were able to capture "a lot of footage" related to the event, Moskowitz noted.

Upon further examination of the students' lockers, Einstein administrators found two automatic guns, one revolver and several knives, according to Moskowitz. It has been speculated that the incident was gang-related, he said.

Moskowitz believes that the general response from the Einstein community was conducive to promoting safety in the school. Through ConnectEd - an automated phone call service - parents were updated on the situation. "Hopefully, the parents got the information they needed," he said.

Blair Principal Darryl Williams said that while the county's focus is currently on dealing with the aftermath of the shooting, he thinks "high school principals will have an ongoing discussion about high school shootings," as well as a debriefing about what was done well at Einstein and ways to prevent such incidents.