BOMB FOUND AT SCHOOL; TWO TEENS ARRESTED.Byline: Bhavna Mistry and Orith Goldberg Staff Writers VALENCIA - Two Valencia High School Valencia High School may refer to:
While a bomb expert detonated the device and deputies with bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the campus for other possible explosives, the school's 2,700 students - some in tears - waited on athletic fields, some planning their own funerals and leaving messages for their loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl . ``It doesn't seem that something like this could happen at our school, but then the people at Columbine columbine, in botany columbine (kŏl`əmbīn), any plant of the genus Aquilegia, temperate-zone perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. didn't think so either,'' said senior Matt Ruffner, 18, referring to the April 20, 1999, shooting massacre at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo. ``It makes you think that even when you're in this protected community, things can happen.'' Tests were under way Wednesday afternoon to determine whether the device - a sophisticated assembly of carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. cylinders, wire and a timer - was indeed explosive, said Detective Ed Nordskog of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department This article is about the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department, not to be confused with the smaller Los Angeles County Police The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is a local law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. arson and explosives detail. Alarms were sounded on campus about 8:50 a.m., shortly after three boys saw one of the suspects place a device in a trash can in the boys' locker room near the gym, where about 2,500 students and parents were expected for a Wednesday night orientation for next year's freshmen, authorities said. The 15-year-old suspects acknowledged that one of them had crafted the device and given it to the other boy, who placed it in the trash, Lt. Carl Deeley said. ``They thought better of it and decided they should throw it away,'' said Valencia Principal Paul Priesz. The names of the two boys arrested were not released because of their ages. Made of six steel C02 canisters attached with electrical tape Electrical tape is a type of pressure-sensitive tape used to insulate electrical wires and other material that conduct electricity. It can be made of many plastics, but vinyl is most popular; it stretches better, giving a more effective and longer lasting insulation. and wiring to a small black box, the device had a timer or voltage meter on the top, Deputy Dan Finn said. More canisters were found during a search of the home of the youth who crafted the device, Lt. Tim Peters Tim Peters may refer to:
``It's either a very elaborate hoax or a real bomb,'' Deeley said. ``Someone put a lot of time and thought into it.'' The pair was booked on suspicion of participating in the making and placing of an explosive device, a felony, Peters said. Other charges could be added, Nordskog said. The youth who crafted the device was taken to Juvenile Hall in Sylmar and the other was released to his parents. Both teens are expected to be arraigned either today or Friday. The device apparently was put together Tuesday night in an effort that took one to two hours. The youth who built it drew a picture of the device for Nordskog and showed him how he designed it. Priesz called the boys average students who were not involved in school activities. And while school officials were shaken by the scare, they were quick to praise the youths who alerted a campus supervisor. ``They did the right thing, they should be congratulated,'' Priesz said. ``You can call them heroes.'' It was just after the second-period bell when the three boys said the saw the two suspects from their physical education class placing what they believed was a bomb into the trash bin. Assistant Principal Les Luxmore was notified and took the device to his office, where he placed it on the floor. ``He did a very brave, but foolish, thing,'' said Deeley. ``His heart was in the right place.'' Andria Pratt waited in a nearby parking lot for her children, a freshman and a junior. ``This is like a repeat of Columbine,'' Pratt said. ``It's really scary.'' Some parents panicked, other hugged their children and were thankful that no one was hurt. ``It alarms me that it happened here,'' said Vikki Madrigal madrigal, name for two different forms of Italian music, one related to the poetic madrigal in the 14th cent., the other the most common form of secular vocal music in the 16th cent. . ``I was very concerned.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour SAC) After successfully detonating det·o·nate intr. & tr.v. det·o·nat·ed, det·o·nat·ing, det·o·nates To explode or cause to explode. [Latin d an explosive device dumped by two students in a trash can in a gym locker room at Valencia High School on Wednesday, bomb squad members prepare to retrieve what's left of the device, above. (2 -- ran in SAC and AV only; color in SAC) t left, students evacuated from the school because of the bomb wait for their rides home. Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News |
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