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Students' project was fake bomb
By MELANIE AVE © St. Petersburg Times, published April 12, 2001 TAMPA -- The day before Hillsborough schools announced a zero-tolerance policy for students who make bomb threats, several students were building a bomb of their own. It was part of a class project. According to a parent of a student involved, several members of a class at Tampa Bay Technical High School were instructed to make a weapon of the future. So, they assembled the casing of a bomb, without explosives. The authorities were contacted after a student riding a school bus home Feb. 27 overheard other students talking about a bomb. Deputies investigated but found nobody had been threatened and decided against pressing charges. "It looked like a bomb in appearance only," sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said Wednesday. That doesn't make a difference to parents and school safety experts who said they were outraged that a lesson in weapons would be included in a high school curriculum, especially as schools nationwide cope with shootings and threats. "It's an absolutely ridiculous class project," said George Fleming, whose daughter attends the school. "Not only is it inappropriate, but potentially could be quite dangerous in terms of how students react." Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center in California, said the two Columbine High School students who killed 12 students and a teacher had made bombs in their garage before their rampage. "The only difference here is they moved it to the schoolhouse," he said. "The last thing a school system needs to do is empower students with bomb-making skills. Students become what they experience." Repeated attempts to reach the teacher, Jeffrey Hagenmeier, were not successful Wednesday, and Tampa Bay Tech Principal Sylvia Albritton refused to comment. District spokesman Mark Hart said school officials are investigating. He made a point of saying Hagenmeier was not teaching students how to make bombs. "If we suspected a teacher for teaching students how to make bombs, I can assure you there would have been swift action," he said. Sheriff's Detective Craig Darlak, a member of the county's bomb squad, went to the school and examined the device. Darlak wrote that it was "inert, but could be made to function just by adding explosive . . . (I)f the device was made to function, it would cause massive damage to life and property" over a 300-foot area. Sheriff's officials would not allow the Times to see the device or to photograph it Wednesday. Raymond Nicholson, whose 15-year-old son was in the class, said nobody was ever in danger. "There was no threat on this," said Nicholson, who works in the Hillsborough County Schools' accounting office. He said talk of the bomb on the school bus that day was nothing more than a discussion about a class project. He said he didn't think there was a problem with the assignment at first. But with the school district facing a record number of bomb threats this year -- and instituting a zero-tolerance policy on Feb. 28 -- he has since changed his mind. "It was probably poor judgment," Nicholson said. "I don't think they'll allow a project like this again." Hagenmeier began teaching in the district in 1985 as a substitute and later became a full-time employee. Florida Department of Education records show no marks on his record. Last year in Pinellas County, a Palm Harbor University High School teacher received a written reprimand for discussing pipe bombs in class the day after the killings at Columbine. Several Tampa Bay Tech students said they were alarmed to hear their classmates were learning about bombs at school. "It's really stupid," said Jessica Willis, a junior. "We've had so many bomb threats this year and now they're learning how to make one? Something could happen."
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