All indoor and outdoor activities have been returned to normal schedules for the Montgomery County Public Schools, following the announcement by law enforcement and county government officials that the current crisis is over.

Previous restrictions on outdoor student activities -- including outdoor recess, physical education, open lunch for high school students, and field trips in the Washington area -- have been removed, along with other restrictions affecting outside activities.

Outdoor athletic programs will be resumed with modified schedules for practices and competitions.

Athletic practices would have been held elsewhere tomorrow if the crisis had not ended. Dr. Jerry D. Weast, superintendent of schools, had obtained the use of the secured facilities of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg -- through the support of the institute's director, Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr., Congresswoman Connie Morella, and County Executive Douglas M. Duncan -- for practices beginning Friday and continuing through the weekend. However, those practices will now be held at local schools.

"All of us -- everyone who works in our school system -- are breathing a sigh of relief this evening," Dr. Weast said, Thursday night [October 24]. "We congratulate the Montgomery County Police and other local, state, and federal law enforcement officers and county government leaders for the capture of the alleged assailants and the ongoing assistance and support they have given us during this incredibly difficult time."