NEW YORK — The mother of a Connecticut woman who was shot to death by police after trying to breach a barrier at the White House said her daughter was suffering from post-partum depression.

Authorities said the woman set off a high-speed car chase that put the Capitol on lockdown Thursday and caused a fresh panic in a city where a gunman killed 12 people two weeks ago.

Two law enforcement officials identified the driver as 34-year-old Miriam Carey, of Stamford, Conn. She was traveling with a 1-year-old girl who avoided serious injury and was taken into protective custody.

Carey's mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, last August.

“A few months later, she got sick,” she said. “She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized.”

Idella Carey said her daughter had “no history of violence” and she didn't know why she was in Washington on Thursday. She said she thought Carey was taking Erica to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut.

ABC News reported that Miriam Carey was a dental hygienist. Her boss, Dr. Steven Oken, described Carey as a person who was “always happy.”

“I would never in a million years believe that she would do something like this,” he said.

LOS ANGELES — A California high school student who grabbed a National Rifle Association T-shirt in her hurry to find something clean to wear to school was later confronted outside class by campus officials who forced the student to remove her shirt or face suspension, the girl's parents said.Haley Bullwinkle heeded the demand, took off the white T-shirt and slipped on a school shirt that officials at Canyon High in Anaheim handed her, but came home confused and frightened, said Mark Selmi, a Long Beach attorney who believes that the school, in following its zero tolerance dress code, violated Haley's civil rights.“I felt like they were violating my rights, my freedom of speech,” the sophomore said. “I want to be able to wear what I want to wear within reason.”On Thursday, the school changed course and apologized to the 16-year-old and said campus staff will be trained so that “an incident like this does not occur again.”