Mayor Speaks Too Soon; Panic Ensues

A high school prank mushroomed into a short-lived panic Thursday after Mayor Richard Riordan announced that a group of students had been arrested for planning a “Columbine-type shooting.”

Within hours, the mayor had apologized for mischaracterizing the incident at Monroe High School, which Los Angeles police later said was a practical joke. Four 10th-grade students were detained and questioned by police but later released to their parents without charges.

“It was all a joke, a fabrication,” said Capt. Terry Hara of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The four boys, whose names were not released, were pulled out of class Thursday morning after authorities received a tip that they were planning some sort of attack on the school. The hoax came just a week before the first anniversary of the rampage at Columbine High School outside Denver, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Riordan broke the news of the students’ alleged plot during a question-and-answer session after his annual State of the City address in Hollywood. Moments before the session, an aide pulled the mayor aside to tell him about the arrests at Monroe in case reporters asked, said Manuel Valencia, deputy mayor of communication.

Riordan called the plot “so shocking” and said: “What if we hadn’t been fortunate enough to find out?”

In acknowledging he erred, Riordan later said he had spoken “prematurely.”

“I understand that by my remarks I caused students, parents and faculty of Monroe High School needless distress,” the mayor said.

According to LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish, three of the boys told another student that they were going to mark the April 20 Columbine anniversary with a similar attack on their school. Kalish said the three boys wanted to see if the fourth student, considered a teacher’s pet, would believe them.

He did, and then told police officers about the alleged plot early this week, police said.

Police began investigating the trio on Tuesday and told Monroe’s principal about the threat. After questioning them and the fourth boy at Devonshire Division headquarters Thursday morning, detectives determined the plot was a hoax, Kalish said. Police found no weapons or attack plans or other incriminating evidence.

School officials said the boys may be disciplined but no decision had been made on Thursday.

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The mayor’s comments, instantly broadcast on radio and TV, sent news helicopters and worried parents flocking to the 3,700-student school. Principal Gregory Vallone said he was “flabbergasted” by Riordan’s remarks.

“I would not liken this to Columbine by any stretch of the imagination,” Vallone said at a news conference he called.

However, school district officials had taken the threat seriously, distributing a memo Thursday morning to school board members stating that “an informant had reported that there would be a ‘Columbine-like activity’ at Monroe High School” April 20.

The memo, written by Dan Isaacs, the district’s assistant superintendent of school operations, said the “allegations indicated that a school police officer, a teacher and the students in her classroom would be targeted.”

School and police officials said all threats need to be carefully investigated, especially in light of the upcoming anniversary of the Columbine shooting, in which two students killed 12 of their schoolmates, a teacher and then themselves.

“The incidents around the country have heightened everyone’s sensitivity, even in cases where youngsters are joking,” said Assistant Supt. John Liechty, in charge of instruction in the San Fernando Valley. “I would rather see us criticized for being overly cautious than being cavalier.”

Monroe students seemed surprised by the burst of attention from police, school administrators and reporters. The school stayed open Thursday, and if it hadn’t been for a four-paragraph note they were given to take home, many students said they would have never learned of the Columbine-driven hoax.

“The mayor tripped out about this,” said Ross, a 17-year-old senior who did not give his last name. “Parents who heard him make those comments on television freaked out and got worried.”

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Times staff writers Karima A. Haynes and Andrew Blankstein and Times Community News correspondent Greg Risling contributed to this story.