Focus Shifts to Parents in Probe of Explosives

Anaheim police were trying to determine Friday whether the parents of two eighth-graders caught with a cache of pipe bombs, guns and ammunition knew about the arsenal and, if so, whether they should face criminal charges.

Detectives also were questioning close friends of the boys, who were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of possessing an explosive device, to see if other students may have been involved.

Nothing investigators have uncovered so far indicates the 14-year-old and 13-year-old were plotting to blow up the school or target any person, said Sgt. Joe Vargas, spokesman for the Anaheim Police Department.

“What we had was two kids who had access to weapons,” Vargas said. “It doesn’t appear they were going after anyone. These two kids don’t fit that profile. They don’t appear to be isolated or disenfranchised from their peers.”

Authorities were alerted about the boys after a fellow student told a school administrator about the weapons.

Police searched the boys’ homes Wednesday night. Along with the weapons, police found Nazi propaganda, handcrafted swastikas, a book on white supremacy and other items indicating the boys had an “interest in white supremacy,” Vargas said.

Two guidance counselors from the school said that if a teacher had seen a child wearing Nazi symbols, it would have been brought up with the student.

“We would notice if the kid showed up like that,” said eighth-grade guidance counselor Alexandra Peters, adding that students at South Junior High must conform to a dress code.

Peters complained that the arrests were being portrayed as somehow associated with the school, an assumption she contests.

“What the kids were doing had nothing to do with school,” Peters said. “This is not a school incident.”

At the home of the 14-year-old, who lives with his mother and two brothers on Virginia Avenue, police found a pipe bomb in the boy’s dresser drawer. They also discovered a bolt-action .303-caliber British military surplus rifle, a Ruger Blackhawk .45-caliber handgun and several large-capacity magazines in his room.

Police believe the weapons and ammunition were taken in the burglary of a nearby house several months ago. That case is still under investigation, Vargas said.

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Inside the house of the 13-year-old, who lives with his mother in an East Lincoln Avenue apartment, police found a bomb in his room made from gunpowder and BBs wrapped in duct tape. They also found Nazi paraphernalia and photographs in the bedroom the boy shares with his brother.

Vargas said if their mothers were aware the boys had the weapons, or knew the guns and ammunition were stolen, they could face criminal charges.

“Part of our investigation will be to determine to what extent the parents had knowledge, if any, about what was going on,” Vargas said. “Nothing we have come up with so far has led to an arrest of the parents.”

Detective Ed Cook said Thursday that the mother of the older boy told police she knew her son had a large supply of ammunition but didn’t know it was live.

She also told police they were overreacting to the situation because of last month’s shooting in Littleton, Colo., where two students opened fire at their high school, killing 13 people before turning their guns on themselves.

Since the shooting, schools across the nation have been overwhelmed with bomb scares and rumored threats of violence. More than 350 students have been arrested in those incidents, and more than 30 of those arrests involved a weapon or explosive device, according to figures compiled by Education Week, a national education publication.

On Thursday, a 15-year-old sophomore in suburban Atlanta opened fire on the final day of classes, injuring six students before he was arrested.

At this point, Anaheim police do not believe the two eighth-graders had any such malevolent plans, Vargas said. The two boys may have just been fascinated by deadly firepower, he said.

The two suspects were described by their peers as good students who are well-liked on campus.

“They’re really good kids,” said seventh-grader Jacque Williams. “There are a lot of very surprised people here.”

Daniel Vrosh, also a seventh-grader, said the public attention focused on the arrests was an overreaction. He said he doubts that the students had planned to do anything with the weapons.

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“They wouldn’t do anything like bomb the school,” Daniel said.

However, a few weeks ago, the boys set off a pipe bomb at their school late at night. The campus was empty and the explosion caused little damage, police said. The boys also have set off bombs in drainage pipes at a local construction site, police said.

“They were playing with, in their minds, large firecrackers,” Vargas said. “But these are very dangerous explosive devices that could really injure . . . or kill a person.”

School authorities said they were flooded with parents’ telephone calls Thursday, after the boys were arrested, but said the concerns subsided the next day.

“Yesterday we were inundated,” said Craig Hagen, the assistant superintendent for administration of the Anaheim Union High School District. “Today, it’s a nonissue.”

Yet parent Jay Wijegunaratne, who has two children at the school, expressed deep concern for their safety as he stood outside the school waiting for them to be dismissed Friday. Wijegunaratne said that his children had recently taken tests in hopes of being admitted to the Oxford Academy in Anaheim, in large part because he felt the school had better security than South Junior High.

* WHAT CAN BE DONE?: Two O.C. legislators are sponsoring a forum today on school violence. B3