2 Boys Arrested in Firebombing of Teacher’s Memorial

Two teen-age boys were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of firebombing two trailers, which students and parents had bought as a memorial to a beloved Agoura High School teacher, because the boys wanted to test a Molotov cocktail.

The boys, 14 and 15, told investigators that they set the blaze Monday night after reading the “Anarchist’s Cookbook,” which explains how to make home-made bombs, said sheriff’s Deputy Detta Roberts. The boys, cousins, wanted to see if they could make a functioning Molotov cocktail, she said.

The fire destroyed two trailers four days after they were delivered to the Driver Avenue campus.

Students and parents bought the trailers with proceeds from a 3-year fund-raising effort. They were to be assembled into a weight room in honor of Bill Belcher, a “good coach and super math teacher” who died 3 years ago, said Vice Principal Bob Donahue.

Donahue said parents and students raised $46,000 for the weight room and still had $4,000 more to raise. The Las Virgenes Unified School District contributed $50,000.

Detectives arrested the boys Tuesday afternoon, Roberts said. They were held on suspicion of arson, then released to the custody of the 14-year-old’s aunt.

The fire was discovered about 9 p.m. Monday by a custodian who heard the gasoline explode and saw two boys run away carrying a gas can, Donahue said.

Officials had planned to open the weight room in May, Donahue said, calling the loss “a terrible waste.”

Belcher, 43, an assistant football coach, suffered a heart attack while tutoring a student at the student’s home on Sept. 17, 1985.

Belcher felt pains while jogging with football players earlier that day but decided not to visit a doctor because a student requested a tutoring session, said Sheri Mount, a parent who led the fund drive.

Mount said Belcher inspired her son on the football field and her daughter in the classroom. Her daughter, Susan Mount, 22, will graduate this spring from the University of the Pacific with a degree in mathematics.

“He’s the man who made math her life,” she said. “He was just too good to forget.”

With Vicki Koch, another Agoura parent, Mount raised $27,000 before the school’s booster club took over the campaign, she said.

Mount said it is unclear whether insurance will cover the loss, and she did not know what the fund-raisers will do.

“To vandalize a memorial to a man that everyone loved is just beyond me,” Mount said.