Bomb Scare at School Delays Exams, Drivers

School officials were greeted with overturned trash cans and a mysterious device resembling dynamite at Cleveland High early Monday, causing the postponement of final exams and traffic congestion around the campus.

The device, which proved to be nonexplosive, was fashioned to resemble a bomb. It was discovered at 6:15 a.m. outside the school’s discipline center by Assistant Principal Alan Weiner and Dean Ed Garcia, who called police, said Principal Eileen Banta.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in my time here before,” Banta said. “It’s a shame that it happened.”

Students arrived for 8 a.m. classes, expecting to take two final exams.

Instead, they were ordered by police and school officials to walk to an evacuation area on the south side of campus.

Student reaction ranged from rattled nerves and anger to frustration and indifference to the incident that police and school officials called a senior prank. “I’m a senior, and I haven’t heard about any sick pranks like this,” said LaToya Clark, 18. “It’s probably someone who’s not graduating and trying to ruin it for everyone else.”

But in the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., just two months ago, police and school officials took no chances in responding to Monday’s incident at the 2,600-student campus.

More than 65 emergency personnel responded, including Los Angeles and school police officers, firefighters and paramedics. The six-hour event cost more than $200,000, said Lt. William A. Guerrero, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, and closed Vanalden Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard, which border the school, to traffic.

An LAPD robot was used to examine the device just before 10:30 a.m. Guerrero said the criminal conspiracy unit will continue to investigate the case. “Some students probably thought this was a funny prank, but it was an expensive operation,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Bostic. “This hoax . . . is a felony crime, and there’s absolutely nothing funny about what happened here.”

Those responsible for placing the fake bomb on campus could face felony charges of making terrorist threats and placing a facsimile explosive device at a school, Guerrero said.

In the evacuation area, students were told to line up in alphabetical order, but many gathered around friends instead. School officials helped calm nerves by providing water and snacks to students waiting for clearance to leave campus.

A few students were distraught over the situation.

“When I saw the bomb squad, I just sat there crying,” said Amarjit Kaur, a 17-year-old junior. “I couldn’t believe what was going on. I was scared.”

But, as the morning wore on, many students grew bored and restless, eventually climbing over school fences to escape.