Pipe Bomb Discovered at School Lunch Area : 14-Year-Old Student Arrested; Authorities Don’t See Anaheim Incident as Linked to 2 Other Cases

A pipe bomb with a remote control detonating device was found above a dining area at an Anaheim high school Tuesday shortly before lunch, and a 14-year-old student at the school was arrested.

The bomb was discovered after the principal at Esperanza High School was tipped that the youth had planted a bomb somewhere on a school roof, officials said. It was the third bomb-related scare in as many days in the county.

The area, where about 2,250 students eat lunch, was cordoned off for nearly 2 hours while the Orange County Sheriff’s Hazardous Devices Squad removed the bomb from the roof and dismantled it, according to Anaheim Police Lt. Jack Parra. No one was injured.

“Had the bomb gone off near some people, it could have caused some serious damage,” Parra said.

Authorities said they knew of no specific motive for the attempted bombing and discounted any direct link to other pipe bomb discoveries in the county earlier this week. On Sunday, a fake bomb was found outside an Iranian restaurant in Orange, and then on Monday, a small pipe bomb was found in the Santa Ana River bed.

The youth, a ninth-grader from Yorba Linda, was taken from class and arrested. Parra said that authorities could only speculate about why he may have planted the device.

“You always wonder if it’s a copycat situation or just a coincidence,” Parra said.

Police Capt. Peter De Paola said the boy seemed troubled and may have been seeking attention.

“The motive would appear to be peer pressure,” De Paola said. “Apparently this kid came on campus bragging about it. He might have seen something on TV that sparked his interest last night.”

The youth was being held Tuesday night at Orange County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of felony possession and manufacture of an explosive device, police said. His name was withheld because of his age.

The campus was calm afterward, and Principal George Allen said it was fortunate that students came to him with the youth’s plans in time.

“They had just heard it from another kid that morning,” Allen said. “I received information on who it was and passed it on to police. Basically, we had the kid before police got there.”

Allen said he knew of no earlier discipline problems involving the youth.

After the students approached him, Allen said, he and other school officials quickly scanned roof tops and spotted the device on a rain shelter above about 30 lunch benches. Then he called police about 11:30 a.m.

The youth’s mother was called and arrived at the school as police were questioning her son, Allen said. The boy was then taken to the Police Department for further questioning.

The sheriff’s bomb squad worked from about noon until shortly after 1 p.m. to remove and dismantle the device, officials said.

According to sources familiar with the bomb’s removal, the device contained an explosive powder. A wire fuse ran from the bomb to a detonator nearby.

The lunch area where the bomb was found is next to the school’s library, language arts and science building, according to Joan Stewart, assistant principal.

“We just told students that something was on the roof that had to be removed,” Stewart said. Classes continued on schedule, she said. Students would be told about the bomb in their first-period classes today, she added.

Irwin M. Fried, a city councilman in Yorba Linda, said he couldn’t believe it when he heard the news of the bomb’s discovery.

“First the stabbing in Irvine. What is happening to these kids? That sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen,” Fried said.

(Early last Sunday, two high school students in Irvine were stabbed in a fight at a fast-food restaurant.)

But Isabelle Hlavac, president of the Board of Education for the Placentia Unified School District, pointed out that no school is safe from violence.

“In this day and age, it can happen anywhere and it does,” said Hlavac, whose board oversees Esperanza High School. “We cannot put our head in the sands. Yet we don’t want to go into a school and make it a prison, either. We try to stay aware.”