JUDGE DISMISSES BOY'S SUIT OVER BOMB REPORT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A judge threw out a defamation lawsuit filed by a Quartz Hill High School student who claimed a classmate falsely accused him of threatening her and others following the Columbine High School massacre.

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Carol Koppel dismissed the lawsuit Friday under a statute that guards against suits intended to inhibit citizens from exercising their political rights - called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, attorneys said.

``The judge found it was a lawsuit that violated the SLAPP statute. She indicated she had no choice but to throw it out,'' said Scott Schutz, the attorney for the girl who was sued. ``She said it was pretty clear that this was all done in the context of an official investigation by the Sheriff's Department and the school administration. Therefore, these communications are protected under the Constitution under freedom of speech.''

The defamation lawsuit against the girl had been consolidated with another lawsuit filed by the boy and his family against the Antelope Valley Union High School District and Los Angeles County. That suit said the boy and his brother were falsely accused of trying to blow up the school.

Those charges also were dismissed Friday.

The boy's attorney, Brian Reed, said he believed the judge was mistaken in granting the defense motions to dismiss the lawsuit. He said his client is considering appealing the decision.

``The authority that she based her decision on was inappropriate. It's our opinion that our suit was not a SLAPP suit. It was filed to protect the rights of two teen-age boys,'' Reed said.

The boys have since transferred from Quartz Hill High School to a private school, Reed said.

Still to be dealt with is a lawsuit filed by the girl against the high school district and the county seeking repayment for the legal costs and attorney fees incurred fighting the boy's lawsuit, Schutz said.

The girl told school administrators in April 1999 that she overheard a schoolmate say, ``We want to kill people, we're sick of them.'' She later reported the boy told her, ``I'm going to get you, I'm going to get you,'' after she had talked with school officials.

In his lawsuit, the boy denied making the threatening statements, and he said the girl made her allegation ``because someone was pressuring her to make the statements even though the statements were incorrect.''

The boy was one of two arrested in the incident. He was charged with making a terrorist threat and dissuading a witness. In Juvenile Court he was granted court-ordered informal probation over prosecutors' objections.

He successfully completed the probation, and the case was dismissed, officials said.

The boy's lawsuit said the boy was charged with intimidating a witness and disturbing schools functions, both of which were dismissed.

According to the suit, the boy was expelled from Quartz Hill High, but the expulsion was reversed on appeal to the Los Angeles County Board of Education.

While television news accounts repeatedly referred to a plot to blow up the school, sheriff's officials said they believe the two boys arrested shared information about bomb-making and told other students they intended to blow up the school, but possessed no explosives.

Deputies said the two boys had a crude hand-drawn campus map marked with symbols for explosions, plus bomb-making instructions pulled from an Internet site.