5 Monroe High Students Suspended Over Shooting Hoax

Five students at Monroe High School have been suspended for their involvement in a prank that raised widespread safety concerns, Principal Gregory Vallone said Friday.

The students, whose names and ages have not been released, had told another student they were planning to attack classmates, a school police officer and a teacher to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School outside of Denver, which left 15 dead.

The Monroe students were joking about their threats, police determined after they questioned them Thursday, and detectives found no evidence the boys were planning an attack. No charges were filed.

But Los Angeles Unified School District officials said the joke was far from funny and the entire school had been disturbed by it.

“This was a very serious incident,” said Dan Isaacs, the district’s assistant superintendent of school operations. “What those boys did affected many people and took an enormous amount of public resources.”

The hoax was spread far and wide after Mayor Richard Riordan disclosed the school investigation during a question-and-answer session Thursday morning after his annual State of the City address. Minutes after the mayor announced a group of boys had been arrested for planning a “Columbine-type shooting,” worried parents and news reporters swarmed the school.

Riordan issued a statement hours later apologizing for mischaracterizing the incident. On Friday, the mayor called Monroe’s principal to say he was sorry.

“And I really appreciated the call,” Vallone said. “If somebody realizes they’ve made a mistake and they come out and say that, what more can you ask?”

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The suspended boys may face further punishment, pending a school investigation, Vallone said. The principal would not comment on how long the boys will be out of school.

Monroe faced another ordeal Friday when police sealed off the neighborhood around the school during a massive manhunt for a fugitive.

The school was put on lock-down and no students were allowed to leave their classrooms from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., when police caught the suspect.

“It’s been a long week,” Vallone said.