Five High School Students Held in Pipe Bomb Incident

Five Rowland High School students were arrested Wednesday after one tossed what he thought was a lit pipe bomb into a full classroom, only to discover that the fuse had been extinguished at the last moment by an accomplice, authorities said.

A portion of the 2,400-student Rowland Heights campus was evacuated for an hour on the penultimate day of classes.

Two of the students, ages 14 and 15, paired up to lob the device into the room and were immediately apprehended by school officials, authorities said. By late Wednesday, three other students had been taken into custody. The youths were booked on charges including suspicion of possession of a destructive device and possession of bomb components.

The students led authorities to at least six other pipe bombs, including one that was found on the campus. The devices were defused by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

“I don’t think they really knew what they were fooling around with,” said Sgt. Gene Leslie. “That’s too bad, too sad. They should have known.”

The incident began about 11:15 a.m. when a 15-year-old student stood outside the classroom holding the bomb aloft and another student, 14, lit it, authorities said. But the younger student apparently had second thoughts, Leslie said, and extinguished the bomb just before his partner lobbed it into the classroom.

School staff immediately removed the bomb from the classroom and, after questioning the students, found a second one behind the gymnasium, according to a school district statement. They evacuated the campus area around the gym and searched each classroom for more explosives while a sheriff’s bomb squad neutralized the pipe bombs.

Investigators detained two other students--ages 14 and 15--who allegedly had helped the initial pair. One of the group led deputies to his house in the 2500 block of Fullerton Road, where investigators found four more pipe bombs, Leslie said.

The block was evacuated while investigators neutralized the remaining bombs, then the youths were taken to the Walnut sheriff’s station, where they were booked into custody. A fifth student was arrested at his home late Wednesday, authorities said.

Leslie said that none of the students appeared to have previously caused serious problems at school.