Homemade Bomb Found at School
An explosive device that could have caused injury if it had been detonated while school was in session was found in a large meeting room at Whitney High School in Cerritos, sheriff’s deputies said Wednesday.
A janitor discovered the homemade bomb, which was made of an unidentified chemical compound, around midnight Tuesday. It was found wrapped in a plastic bag in a multipurpose room at the college preparatory magnet school, deputies said.
The janitor removed the device from the room, and members of the sheriff’s bomb squad detonated it.
“The device could have caused several thousand dollars in damage and injuries to anyone standing near it,” Deputy Ron Ablott said.
A caller, described as a young person, telephoned the school Wednesday and reportedly said that something might still blow up there, officials said.
A search of the school grounds failed to turn up anything further. School officials said extra security personnel have been assigned to the 900-student campus.
Principal Pauline Ferris said the school has been having no unusual problems.
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