2 Teens Accused of Internet Bomb Hoax

Two boys suspected of sending hoax bomb threats over the Internet were arrested in Anaheim on Monday, hours after a La Palma high school was evacuated in an unrelated scare, officials said, sending a new wave of doomsday rumors swirling just when Orange County educators said they had begun to fizzle out.

The teenagers, both 15 and students at Canyon High School in Anaheim, sent out e-mail messages Saturday night that listed eight north Orange County high schools and claimed a bomb would explode at one of the campuses Thursday, police said.

Two hours later, police said, the boys, who are from Anaheim Hills, sent out another Internet message, denying responsibility for the first e-mail and accusing a hacker of sending it. But police believe the two messages were written by the same people.

“It is obvious that grammar was not [the writers’] strong point,” Sgt. Joe Vargas said. “They made the same misspellings and grammar errors in their second e-mail.”

The arrests came just hours after a student at John F. Kennedy High School in La Palma described seeing what may have been a pipe bomb in the girls’ restroom, prompting a frantic evacuation that continued into the lunch hour. The student had reported seeing the device in a toilet shortly after 9 a.m.

After flushing through the school’s pipes and drains in search of the device, police and fire officials declared the building safe about 1 p.m., but dozens of parents had already taken their children home.

“You get that feeling in your stomach,” said Brenda Lopez, who left work in Santa Fe Springs after a phone call from her son, during which she could hear news helicopters hovering in the background. “You can’t help but think of the tragedy that happened [in Colorado].”

Fueling her and other parents’ fears were rumors that seemed to multiply by the hour as nearly 2,000 students waited on the school’s football field for instructions. Suddenly, word had it, there were three bombs someplace inside the school. Then it was explosive gas, or maybe a stick of dynamite. Several said there had been a warning posted on the Internet about a possible shooting at the school, yet another piece of unconfirmed gossip that has plagued campuses across the country since the shootings in Littleton, Colo.

Orange County school officials had hoped the whispers and threats would calm down this week, after a consistent effort since the April 20 killings to beef up security, inform parents of added police presence and warn students that joking about violence could lead to expulsion.

Panic seemed to peak last Friday--the 54th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s death--with attendance down in many schools amid rumors that violence would be linked to that day. Vandalism was magnified into death threats, sheriff’s deputies scoured schools for bombs and weapons, and students were on edge about Web sites that were said to list their schools as the next target of violence. Besides the e-mail messages found in Anaheim on Monday, law enforcement agencies were unable to trace any Web sites with such specific threats.

With the exception of the incident in La Palma, however, by Monday things had indeed quieted considerably, officials said, with few other scares reported and most students back in school.

“I feel much better today than I did last week,” said James A. Fleming, superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District, where authorities have already recommended the expulsion of a 15-year-old student who they say scrawled a threatening note about bombs and killings on a classroom desktop. “We’re hoping that the kids who are scheming to use the situation as an excuse for pranks and threats and anything else have gotten over it by now.”

Attendance at Brea Olinda High School, which like others dropped sharply on Friday, was also back to normal, Assistant Supt. Peter J. Boothroyd said. Last week, police officials worked feverishly inspecting the campus after the first rumor of a possible bomb was received, but little was made of those fears Monday, Boothroyd said.

“It’s been your typical high school day,” he said, “which is exactly what we want.”

Besides constant communication between families and educators about school safety, officials have taken other, more subtle measures to ease fears. Several Orange County school districts--including Saddleback Valley Unified, Huntington Beach Union High School and Capistrano Unified--have forbidden students from wearing trench coats or dusters, clothing worn by the killers in Colorado. A forum for school officials and Orange County sheriff’s authorities is scheduled later this month to address more safety issues.

When police and bomb squad officers arrived at the La Palma school Monday, officials had evacuated students and teachers by telling them “exactly what was going on,” said Craig Haugen, assistant superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District.

“We want to be honest,” he said of the announcement, which aired on the school’s intercom system. “We want people to know the truth about what’s happening because the rumors are much worse.”

While the incident alarmed some students, many said they were simply annoyed by the disruption and dismissed the bomb scare as a foolish prank.

“It’s a joke,” said Johnny Allen, 18. “There’s some tests going on for seniors right now, so a lot of kids just want to get out of school.”

Officials in other school districts sought to restore calm on campuses where threats had resulted in several students being arrested last week. In Ventura County, educators are holding public forums, increasing police presence at schools, discussing safety at school board meetings and reevaluating disaster plans.

But easing tensions at that county’s public schools hasn’t been easy. At a time when students should be making plans for prom and studying for finals, many are worried about bombs and guns on campus. And fearing for their children’s security, many parents are keeping them at home. Things were quiet Monday, officials said, but principals are being vigilant.

“It will take more than a day or two to see if we are there yet, but the best thing that could have happened to let things breathe was the weekend,” said Roger Rice, principal of Hueneme High School, where there had been false reports last week of students carrying guns. “Last week was really hectic.”

In the meantime, Supt. Fleming, whose district reported no bomb threats or incidents Monday, said he hopes the scare in La Palma won’t cause new “ripple effects” in other schools and further injure already frayed nerves.

“It did nothing to help any of us, that’s for sure,” he said of the Kennedy High School incident. “We’re all in this together.”

At Newport Harbor High School, students wrote letters and sent gifts last week to Columbine High School teenagers in Colorado. But Principal Bob Boise said this week they are ready to let go.

“I think a lot of kids now just want a break from all this,” he said. “It’s time.”

Staff writers Jack Leonard and Anna Gorman and correspondent Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.