Posted on: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Third teenager arrested in Kaiser High bomb threat

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Police Writer

Police have arrested a third juvenile suspected of making bomb threats against Kaiser High School on Feb. 27 and 28.

The 13-year-old boy was arrested Sunday for investigation of first-degree terroristic threatening, but released pending further investigation.

A 14-year-old boy and girl already had been arrested for investigation of first-degree terroristic threatening as part of the same incident. They were also released.

Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle yesterday said that his office would take such cases very seriously. The message needs to get out, he said, that bomb threats and hoaxes — just like similar cases during the anthrax scares last year — will be treated as the criminal acts they are, and that those responsible will be arrested and prosecuted.

A bomb threat could be prosecuted as terroristic threatening, a Class C felony, Carlisle said.

Police said there is no evidence connecting the Kaiser High incident to a bomb threat last week that alarmed public schools students and parents islandwide. In that incident, police told the state Department of Education that a caller to 911 claimed a bomb had been planted at an O'ahu school and was set to explode in three days.

The Department of Education notified all 176 O'ahu schools and letters were sent to parents. No bomb was found.