Boy, 10, Expelled Over Bomb Found at School

A 10-year-old Lancaster boy who allegedly left a homemade time bomb in a school bathroom was suspended from school for four months and will have to continue his studies at home, school officials said Wednesday.

The fifth-grader, whose name was not made public, will undergo a rehabilitation program during that time that includes tutoring and possible counseling, said Allan Sacks, assistant superintendent of Westside Union School District.

During his suspension, the boy will do schoolwork at home under the supervision of his parents and will see a teacher for tutoring.

He is scheduled to appear in April before the school board, which will consider whether to readmit him for the fourth quarter, Sacks said. The student could have been expelled by the district’s board of trustees, which met Monday night to consider the action.

The boy is accused of placing a bomb, made of model rocket engines and using a digital clock as a timer, in the trash can of the boys’ bathroom at the Del Sur School in Lancaster on Dec. 10.

The bomb, discovered by other students, was detonated by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad only six minutes before it would have gone off, deputies said.

The youth told authorities that he learned how to make the potentially lethal bomb by watching “MacGyver,” a TV show. Producers of the show said no episode ever showed how to make a bomb.

An investigation by the sheriff’s arson-explosive detail is continuing and may result in criminal charges being filed, officials said.