The 19-year-old Maui woman accused of bringing a fake bomb into Boston's Logan International Airport yesterday was a stellar student-athlete at Hawai'i Preparatory Academy and the news of her arrest stunned those at the small private school.

Star Anna Simpson, a sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was surrounded by law enforcement officers carrying submachine guns after she walked out of Logan allegedly holding Play-Doh and wearing a computer circuit board that had flashing lights and wiring.

Authorities call it a fake bomb; she called it art.

"We were all very shocked because she was such an exemplary student," Hawai'i Prep spokeswoman Phyllis Kanekuni said after Simpson's arraignment in East Boston Municipal Court. "We hope the situation can be resolved quickly so she can proceed with her very bright future."

Simpson was born in March 1988 and entered Hawai'i Prep on the Big Island as a seventh-grader. She graduated with honors in 2006.

"She was an exemplary student and swimmer," Kanekuni said, "incredibly hard-working, enthusiastic about learning and very humble and courteous."

Hawai'i Prep is spread across two campuses in the Big Island town of Waimea. It has 590 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade and 350 in high school.

Simpson was captain of the robotics team, captain of the swim team and also played water polo, Kanekuni said. She holds school records in 50- and 100-meter swimming events and medaled at the state swim championships.

She also founded the school's chess club as a freshman and was inducted into Hawai'i Prep's Cum Laude academic society in her junior year, Kanekuni said.

'I LOVE CRAZY IDEAS'

Last year, Simpson was one of 31 Hawai'i student-athletes to win an Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation scholarship. The students had to have a minimum 3.3 grade-point average and demonstrate a need for financial aid.

On her personal Web site at MIT, she says she is studying computers and enjoys tinkering in a student-run machine shop.

"In a sentence, I'm an inventor, artist, engineer, and student, I love to build things and I love crazy ideas," the Web site says.

According to the MIT Web site, Simpson is from Kihei and is a sprinter on the school's swim team. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, however, listed a Lahaina post-office box address for Simpson but had no Boston-area address. MIT is in Cambridge, near Boston.

Duke Gonzales, spokesman for the postal service in Honolulu, said the post-office box listed by Suffolk County officials is at the downtown Lahaina post office on Papalaua Street — one of two post offices in Lahaina.

Authorities in Boston expressed amazement that someone would wear a device like the one Simpson was wearing six years after two of the jets hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks took off from Logan.

"I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport," said state police Maj. Scott Pare, the airport's commanding officer.

The terminal was not evacuated and flights were not affected, airport officials said.

She wore the white circuit board on her chest over a black hooded sweatshirt, Pare said at a news conference.

The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, and Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said. Two phrases that looked hand-drawn — "Socket to me" and "Course VI" — were written on the back of her sweatshirt, which authorities displayed to the media.

Course VI appears to refer to MIT's major of electrical engineering and computer science.

"She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day," Pare said. "She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it."

There was a career fair at the university on Thursday, according to the university's Web site.

Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device. A not-guilty plea was entered for her and she was released on $750 bail.

Simpson smiled as she entered the hearing wearing a T-shirt and sandals. After she posted bail, she left in a taxi with a man who identified himself as her boyfriend, but neither would answer more questions from reporters.

DEADLY FORCE

A Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson — wearing the device — approached to ask about an incoming flight, Pare said. Simpson then walked outside, and the staffer notified a nearby trooper.

The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her at a traffic island in front of the terminal.

"She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device," Pare said.

"Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force."

He added, "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.