Sheriff’s deputies swoop in at Carson High, detain five, arrest two students planning ink and smoke bomb attack on campus

Sheriff Ken Furlong says up to nine students were going to take advantage of a late 10am start time for classes today at Carson High, and launch an ink and smoke bomb attack on the school, including fireworks. Deputies got a tip that the operation had already been launched and positioned themselves to intercept the students involved. Five of the nine were intercepted as they came onto campus. None were carrying any devices necessary to pull off the incident. The five are being questioned as to the exact details of the planned incident. The other four are being located and will be questioned.

Deputies say they interecepted the five at 7:30 this morning when they stuck out like a sore thumb against empty hallways, since classes were not starting until 10am. Deputies and school administrators quesitoned the five and confirmed that they had plotted to disrupt the start of classes at 10am. They entered the main building this morning to figure out where to plant the smoke bombs and firecrackers so as to avoid surveillance cameras. When the students converged at a pre-arranged meeting place, they were surrounded and detained. Deputies say at no time was there any threat to anyone on the campus.

The five so-far questioned, and the other four are expected to be suspended from school and then be re-assigned to the district’s “alternative” high school campus on Corbett. In addition, all class credits accrued by the 9 suspects will be cancelled. All are said to be 15 to 17 years of age. Two students were arrested just prior to the noon hour, one for threatening a student who he believed had “snitched” on them to the sheriff’s office.

Oddly enough, none of the students believed involved have any serious criminal record. However a few of them have been disruptive on campus triggering disciplinary action by school officials.

Lead investigator Sgt. Daren Sloan said the Sheriff’s Office “takes very seriously these kinds of incidents, for as the national media has shown us repeatedly, it’s a short distance between pranks and lethal behavior.”