’Bomb’ a schoolboy grudge?

Press, 24 April 1979, Page 6

’Bomb’ a schoolboy grudge?

PA' Wellington Explosives found at Newlands College could be part of a youth’s grudge against the school which the police fear could end in tragedy. The police evacuated the college soon after 10 a.m. yesterday and sent home 425 pupils from the adjacent Newlands Intermediate School and 315 pupils at Newlands School. Another squad of police rushed to Bellevue Primary School, about a kilometre from the college, where a burglary had been reported. Pupils there were taken to the school assembly hall, where they were told what was happening and kept there for safety. School authorities decided to send them home in the afternoon, however.

Dogs trained to sniff out. explosives were brought in to search the schools. As the police began an inch-by-inch search of the schools’ grounds and classrooms for more gelignite, inquiries were underway throughout Wellington for more stolen explosives. Detectives last evening asked parents of children holding a grudge against the school to look out for eight sticks of gelignite and nearly 100 detonators stolen from a Wellington City Council tunnel site. They fear the explosives are in the hands of a pupil or former pupil of the school who could kill himself and others nearby if he tampers with them. Detectives, tvorking on information supplied by

Newlands College teachers, interviewed recently expelled pupils, in search of the missing explosives. The principal of Newland College, Mr Rex Sage, said that some of the deadly gelignite had been thrown against the canteen wall, and bits of detonator were strewn around the college grounds. “At this stage it seems that fairly young children are involved because they probably were trying to get into the canteen for food,” he said. The gelignite and detonators were stolen from the tunnelling site in Ngauranga Gorge at the weekend. A shed at the site was broken into, according to the Wellington Town Clerk (Mr I. McCutcheon). He said whoever had

broken in must have found some keys. “I’m sure the magazine is very secure unless people go looking for the keys. “We obviously will have to review our security measures,” he said. As soon as it was discovered that classrooms had been broken into the pupils were taken to the assembly hall, he said. After they had been told of the extreme danger of any explosives or detonators they were told to go home and report back at 1 p.m. They were subsequently advised by radio to stay at home until this morning until a thorough search of the school and grounds had been completed. On Sunday morning a stick of gelignite and a de-

tonator made up to look like a bomb were found bv a schoolboy, Derek Soderberg, who was at the school with his father for soccer practice. The bomb was on a windowsill near the school’s canteen which had been broken into.

Mr Soderberg said that although the device certainly looked like a crude bomb he though it was a result of somebody’s “weird sense of humour.’’

So, unwittingly, he put the lethal object in his pocket and continued coaching the team. The bomb was then given to the supervising physical education teacher at the school, Mr J. Hornal. Mr Hornal put it in his car and yesterday handed it in to the school’s science master, Mr R. Julien, who recognised the danger.