For the second time in a week, pepper spray was discharged on a Baltimore County school bus, prompting 11 students to be evaluated by emergency responders Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

The spray was set off by an elementary school student shortly after 4 p.m., according to school and fire officials. The student, who found a set of keys left behind by a middle schooler on an earlier route, deployed the attached canister while the bus was taking students home from Pleasant Plains Elementary School in Towson, according to a letter Principal Joyce Albert sent to families.

The Baltimore County Fire Department said that no students needed to be transported to the hospital. The hazmat team responded and cleared the scene, according to a post from the fire department.

The bus driver “immediately notified emergency services” after the pepper spray was discharged and went back to the school where the students were evaluated, according to Albert’s letter. The Department of Transportation sent another bus to help take students home, she added.

Advertise with us

Albert said in the letter that students found with pepper spray will face “disciplinary consequences.”

This is the second pepper spray incident in a week on a Baltimore County school bus. On Friday, 14 students were hospitalized after a student unintentionally discharged their pepper spray. Vincent Farm Elementary School Principal Jamie Basignani told parents in a letter that the student would face consequences.

The letter also said that Baltimore County Schools prohibits students from carrying Mace, tear gas devices or pepper spray products on buses or school property.