Student behind bomb
scare could be expelled
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — A student whose written message on a classroom desk forced evacuation of Old Bridge High School’s east campus last week could face expulsion.

The 17-year-old male, whose name is not being released due to his age, is expected to face the district’s Board of Education, which is seeking full restitution for the Feb. 18 incident, district officials said.

Described by school officials as a "bomb hoax," the message handwritten on a classroom desk prompted evacuation of the entire ninth- and 10th-grade student body.

Those students were quickly moved to the neighboring Carl Sandburg Middle School for approximately two hours while investigators from the township, county and state searched the east campus for a possible bomb.

Though the evacuation interfered with the day’s lessons at the east campus, it also interrupted the activities of the middle school students, according to Superintendent of Schools Nicole Okun.

"This [incident] disrupted the education of more than 3,500 students and will not be tolerated," Okun said. "The district will be seeking full restitution."

The student will also be brought before the school board for an expulsion hearing at a future date, Okun confirmed through Lori Luicci, a district spokeswoman.

According to police, a teacher first approached School Resource Officer Gary Krupa, an Old Bridge police officer, at about 7:45 a.m. and told him that a message written in pencil on a student desk indicated that the school would "blow up" at about 11:15 a.m.

The high school’s administration was then notified, as well as the Old Bridge Township Police Department. The police then ordered the evacuation of the school.

The students were moved to the middle school, where they remained in the gymnasium and a few large group instruction classrooms, Luicci said. They stayed at the middle school until about 11 a.m., when investigators declared the east campus safe, police reports state.

Township police combed the building looking for explosive devices or firearms. They were joined in the search by K-9 units from the Middlesex and Monmouth County sheriffs’ departments and four bomb-sniffing dogs used by the New Jersey State Police.

The teacher in whose classroom the threatening messaged was originally found later advised police that he had reprimanded the suspected student for writing on the desk during class the day before.

The police department’s detective bureau apprehended the suspect the following day, according to Lt. Robert Weiss of the Old Bridge Police.

Okun commended the township police, the high school and middle school administration, and the faculty and students at both schools for their cooperation during the course of the evacuation.