Westhill HS Students Arrested After Setting Off Homemade Explosives (June 2011)

Response to Student Homemade ChemBombs in Maryland 2008

STUDENTS WILL ON OCCASION WILL BRING

HOMEMADE EXPLOSIVE DEVICES TO SCHOOL

On July 2011, in Stamford, Connecticut, two city high school students face felony charges after setting off two small homemade bombs containing household chemicals on a friday morning at Westhill High School. A Westhill employee told police he would seek medical attention after inhaling fumes from one of the exploded devices, which were set off in trash bins. No other injuries were reported.

 

The bombs, contained in plastic bottles, produced loud explosions around 9:45 a.m. in two cafeterias at the Roxbury Road high school, said Stamford Police Sgt. Joseph Kennedy. The noise from the device caused "sheer panic" in the cafeteria, where a school resource police officer was posted.

 

The devices did not cause a fire, but one trash bin began smoking in the Raynor cafeteria, Kennedy said. An unidentified teacher or administrator went to the trash bin and inhaled chemical fumes and planned to seek medical attention. The exact contents of the homemade chemical bombs were unknown, but Kennedy said the two students filled plastic bottles with household cleaning solutions and mixed them with aluminum foil to cause a chemical reaction. The chemical reaction generate enough overpressure to cause the plastic containers to explode and release chemical liquid and vapors nearby.

 

Police officers and school administrators used surveillance video footage to identify the two 16-year-olds who set off the devices. They were arrested about 45 minutes after the explosions, Kennedy said. The students were charged with felony counts of second-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor, first-degree reckless endangerment and manufacturing bombs. They are being held at the juvenile detention facility at Bridgeport. Their names are being withheld because they are juveniles.

 

Kennedy said it is unclear whether the 16-year-olds were involved in a Wednesday incident at Westhill in which students threw water balloons filled with bleach at each other. School officials wouldn't disclose how the students will be disciplined. "Unfortunately, student privacy laws don't allow me to share the specific details of the disciplinary actions that will be taken," said Sarah Arnold, a spokeswoman for the district. "But the administration is going to pursue the maximum penalties."

 

According to the district's student behavior policy, students in possession of "explosive materials in school, or ignition of any flammable material in school" can be considered for removal from class, in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension and expulsion. Shannon O'Connor, a 16-year-old junior at Westhill, said she was sitting in the cafeteria several feet from the trash bin when one of the teens threw the small homemade device into it. The loud explosion startled everyone in the cafeteria, but the panic quickly subsided. "Everyone just screamed and jumped," she said Friday afternoon. "It scared me and I wasn't even near it."

Points for Consideration:

• It is a fact of life that teenagers left unsupervised and armed with a little information will try or experiment with chemicals and incendiary devices creating dangerous situations. The phrase "...it is all fun and games until someone loses an eye!" becomes deadly serious when kids can be injured. Many things that start out as a prank or something that seems cool turn out deadly and legally serious for the adolescent participants.
• Taken to a nefarious extreme, the Columbine incident was planned as a large two phased bombing attack to be followed by a shooting spree to kill the remaining survivors. Bombs (in duffel bags) were placed in the cafeteria during the busiest lunch period, but failed to detonate.
• Google search how to make a homemade device and you will be taken to YouTube where you can watch short films that will show you how. What is more disconcerting is to watch those short films made by kids who are demonstrating how to do this or that and even the film footage is an accident waiting to happen. Young kids playing with mixing interactive chemicals without any idea of the danger at close range.
• Parents / Guardians, Teachers, and students need to be tuned to that special frequency that if they "see something or hear something, they need to say something" to an authority figure so immediate action can be taken.
• The proper placement of cameras can be invaluable in finding out who was involved in an incident and what actually occurred.
• The reaction of students, school workers, and faculty to an explosion is often overlooked to include the unintended response (heart attack, anxiety attack, asthma attack, etc.) can turn a prank into a more serious affair (serious injury or death).

CHEMISTRY OUTSIDE  OF CHEMISTRY CLASS IS DANGEROUS

for STUDENTS



 

Student Safety: In and Out of School (HS Junior Killed by falling off a Car)

During the last week of June, a high school junior facing his upcoming senior year in the September at Woodland Regional High School in Beacon Falls, CT. He died due to head injuries he sustained when he fell off of or out of a moving car. The accident occurred on a Monday night at 10:22 pm. He was riding on top of a Honda Civic and he fell off when it drove forward. The car contained his twin brother who was also 17 and a friend who is 18 yrs old. It is uncertain if he was on the roof or the trunk, and their is a pending CT State Police (CSP) investigation. The CSP will determine the circumstances and it any charges will be filed. A great young man who liked to play golf, hang out with friends; he is no longer with us.

Points for Consideration:

• Summer Safety Brief for All Students. Schools typically have a pre-graduation safety brief prior to prom season and graduation. This needs to continue, but why not expand that to all of the student population tailored to summer student safety as well?
• Vehicle Safety, Water Safety, Boating, Fireworks Safety, Social Networking & Cyber -Bullying Safety, Firearms Safety, Crime Prevention & Personal Safety , just to name a few...
• Graduating Seniors and Adulthood Responsibilities. The 18 year old driver or occupant of the car can be held liable for his actions or inactions as an adult as opposed to the 17 yr old...? Adult responsibilities are often not considered by 18 yr old students or graduates.
• Every school is trying to develop lifelong learners as we prepare them academically and socially to enter adulthood and become the future leaders of our communities. 
• Students who drive need to understand some of the science and physics behind driving. I think it would have a great effect for a high school physics teacher to discuss the physics behind a car crash and the effects upon a human body (seat-belted and not) or a scenario where a student was trying to hold onto a car while it was driving and it stops or accelerates. Or have a local police department conduct a crime scene investigation and how it is done. (I attended a community citizen's police academy and the accident investigation class was enlightening to say the least.) Many drivers are not aware of the tremendous force a vehicle can generate.  

Preparedness isn't just for school, and it is not "done to" the students. They have an active present and future role and responsibility is being prepared to recognize all hazards throughout their lives. School's need to instill preparedness throughout the school community whether school is in session or not. This nests with the local community's preparedness efforts and builds a network of informed and prepared citizens.

NJ High School Student Prank Results In Arrests

June 2010, seven New Jersey high school (Morris Knolls High School) boys who are minors were arrested for releasing a variety of animals and rodents in the school as part of their senior prank. They brought rabbits, mice, roosters, and chickens into the school and released them into the ceiling (tiles). The police were called after custodians saw unauthorized people in the school just before midnight. The students came into the school through an open window and the majority of animals were stolen from farms.

Comments:

• Unchecked Teenage Humor and Student Pranks often = criminal charges, loss of privilege to participate in graduation, expenses (damage repair, lawyer fees, court costs, restitution, etc.), and hazardous material clean up costs.  
• Charges:
• Breaking and Entering, Cruelty to Animals, Bringing Animals into School
• Clean Up Costs:
• IF animals are not recovered, they will die in the ceilings, overheads, and ventilation air ducts. The smell and flies will require recovery of the bodies.
• Animal and Rodent fecal matter will also create an odor and a health risk.
• Hazardous Cleanup Companies are required sue to union rules, OSHA, and health code requirements due to the medical risk involved.

Prevention: It is important that the Senior Year Class Advisors, Housemasters, Guidance Counselors, and the Principal get the word out from the beginning of the school year and up until graduation that certain behaviours will not be tolerated and that the consequences will be severe. If laws are broken then the police will be involved. Recommend that this is mentioned to parents and at PTO meetings, in an effort to "protect the kids" from their occassional poor judgement.

School Pranks Gone Awry...The Time of Year for Student Bad Judgment

May 16, 2010

I recently read two news articles:

20 OHIO STUDENTS ARRESTED IN HIGH SCHOOL PRANK (Lockland, Ohio)

Incident: 20 Ohio high school students broke (breaking and entering) into the local high school and started ransacking (throwing books: destruction of private property) the school. Many were dressed in black and did this at night. The students were arrested and face felony charges. The students said it was "just a end of the year prank" and some of the parents said it is a tradition and police are blowing the situation out of proportion. School district plans disciplinary action.

REPORT OF "RIFLES" AT SCHOOL; 9 YOUTHS DETAINED (Graham, Wash)

Teenagers brought realistic looking pellet rifles into an elementary school on a Friday causing someone to call 911 resulting in a police response and arrests. 9 students were arrested (possessing dangerous weapons on school grounds) and 7 Airsoft Guns were confiscated. While no one was injured, the police received multiple calls about armed individuals at the school at 4 pm during a time where there were after school activities


Commentary on the Two Stories: Breaking into school and bringing anything that looks like a weapon (especially assault weapons) are not pranks or one of those "aw, kids will be kids" responses. For the Ohio students, they have been arrested and will probably be suspended, and those seniors will probably not graduate with their class. Nothing funny about that for the students and their parents, but well deserved. For the elementary students who brought replica (Airsoft) assault weapons into their school they are lucky they were not shot. The police were well withing their rights to call for an Active Shooter response to armed individuals in a school. This response is focused on all officers responding to immediately eliminate the threats since most school shooting are over in the first 5 to 10 minutes. School Shooting situations require an immediate and agressive tactical response to save innocent lives if possible. Had officers filled and flodded those hallways from multiple directions looking for multiple shooters and ran into a kid with an "assault rifle" pointing in their direction there could / would have been a lethal engagement resulting in a student's death. That is a closer call than many may realize, stupidity can kill just like complacency. A serious example needs to be set for those students.