6 Youths Held in High School Pipe Bombing

Six Calabasas High School students who allegedly planted two pipe bombs at rival Agoura High School, apparently in retaliation for graffiti painted on buildings at their campus, were arrested Tuesday by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

One of the bombs exploded last Friday night and caused about $500 damage. The other was found unexploded Saturday by a student work detail that was cleaning lockers near Agoura High’s English department building, Las Virgenes Unified School District officials said.

The names of the teen-agers, all juveniles who were taken into custody at Calabasas High and held at the Malibu sheriff’s station on suspicion of possession of a destructive device, were not released because of their ages. Deputies said five are 16 and one is 17. School officials declined to disclose their grade levels.

A district spokesman said the bombs were planted after graffiti was painted at Calabasas High. Agoura High beat Calabasas High 67-65 in a basketball game that night.

The spokesman said the arrests came as the result of information gathered by school officials Monday.

District Supt. Albert D. Marley said the bombing was apparently the result of a “good-natured rivalry” that went awry. He said the district will use its own measures to discipline the six students in addition to the criminal proceedings.

Sheriff’s officials said the teen-agers were released to the custody of their parents Tuesday afternoon.