PAHRUMP -- A 15-year-old boy known to some classmates only as "Freddie" armed himself with a Samurai sword Monday, hijacked a school bus and revealed his plans to blow up his high school.
The boy was caught just across the California state line east of Shoshone after Nye County and Inyo County sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers pursued him for nearly an hour at high speeds.
Inyo County sheriff's deputies threw down spike strips on California Highway 178. The boy tried to avoid them by driving into the desert, but the empty bus rolled over.
Nye County Assistant Sheriff Richard Marshall said authorities searched the boy's backpack and found ammunition and written plans to "blow up Pahrump Valley High School." Marshall said the boy told Nye County sheriff's investigators he intended to plant gasoline bombs at the school, but he did not have time to carry out his plans.
"As a precaution, we evacuated the school and searched for explosives," he said. "We didn't find anything, but our investigation led us to another Pahrump Valley High School student who was involved in the plan."
The boy who stole the bus was arrested and taken into custody at the Inyo County Juvenile Center in Independence, Calif. The second boy was arrested and taken into custody in Pahrump.
Both face charges of conspiracy, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and several misdemeanors. The boy in Inyo County faces a charge of grand theft auto. Authorities did not release the boys' names.
Pahrump Valley High Principal Jerry Hill said the school was well-prepared to respond to the sheriff's department request to evacuate the school and search for explosives.
He said students were relatively calm through the ordeal.
"We had two bomb threats last year," he said. "This is beginning to be a pretty common occurrence. We have plans in place, and everybody knew what to do."
The students were evacuated to the football field, then dismissed. Nye County School District officials then ordered a precautionary lockdown of Hafen Elementary School, just behind the high school.
Cameron McRae, director of the Nye County School District's transportation department, called the incident "a real shocker."
"An unknown mother called the bus yard to say Bus No. 9 blew by the bus stop and that it looked like a kid was driving," McRae said.
McRae said they boy tried to get on the bus with the sword. But bus driver Marcia Jackowski stopped him and tried to persuade the boy to give her the sword. McRae said the boy repeatedly threatened her and ordered her off the bus.
When the driver tried to grab the keys before getting out, the boy struck the radio with the sword and ordered her to leave the keys. McRae said that the boy was Jackowski's first stop and that two other students were waiting at the same stop.
When she got off the bus, she walked them home and used their phone to call the sheriff's department and school officials, McRae said.
"She handled herself exactly right given the situation," McRae said.
Students at Pahrump Valley High School said they were surprised to hear a classmate had stolen a school bus and planned with a friend to blow up the school.
Tim Bennett, 16, said the boy who stole the bus was a freshman known around the school as Freddie but often was taunted and called other names.
"A lot of people did make fun of him," Bennett said. "He had a scar, and people called him 'Scarface.' He also had gimpy leg. I guess you just know, at some point, people like that are going to lose it. I just don't think anyone thought he had the guts to do it."
Others in the community expressed dismay that such an incident could happen in Pahrump.
"It definitely makes me want to home-school my children," said Connie Monahan, who has two children at Hafen Elementary and a toddler. "I just moved here in December, thinking this is smaller than Vegas, safer. But what happened today was just scary."
