15-Year-Old Charged in Bomb Incident

A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with bringing a replica of a bomb to Valencia High School, which forced the evacuation of nearly 2,600 students Wednesday, the district attorney’s office said.

The boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, was scheduled to be arraigned today at Sylmar Juvenile Hall on the felony charge, district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. The teen, who allegedly assembled the device and took it to school Wednesday, will be tried as a juvenile. There is no maximum or minimum sentence if he is convicted, Gibbons said.

A second boy, also 15, who allegedly dropped the device in a school locker room trash can, has not yet been charged, Gibbons said.

If bomb squad investigators determine the device contained explosives, more charges could be filed, Sheriff’s Det. Edward Nordskog said. Chemical tests on remains of the device, which authorities exploded after the school was evacuated, could take more than a week, he added.

Both boys were suspended from school for five days, and administrators will recommend that they be expelled, said Valencia High Principal Paul Priesz. He said the boys’ alleged actions caught school officials by surprise, but declined to discuss their disciplinary histories.

Nordskog said the boy who was charged drew a diagram of the device for him before detectives handled it. Detectives found components similar to those used to make the device at the boy’s home, Nordskog said.

The device alarmed authorities because it was much more elaborate than the pipe-bomb imitations sometimes deployed by pranksters, Nordskog said. “It just shows a lot higher level of intelligence and sophistication,” Nordskog said.