Boy Who Talked of Bombs at East High Gets Probation

A 15-year-old Wauwatosa East High student was sentenced Tuesday to probation and community service in Milwaukee County Juvenile Court for making a bomb threat, according to TMJ4 News.

The boy was given one year of probation and 36 hours of community service work as punishment for scaring the school community with talk of building a bomb and setting it off on graduation day, the TV station reported.

On April 26, the 15-year-old and another boy were reported to school officials after other students overheard them talking about planting a bomb, possibly in a stairwell.

Police confiscated computers and cell phones belonging to the boys and found evidence that at least the one sentenced Tuesday had looked into bomb-building instructions on the internet. He also admitted to officers that he had tried to make gunpowder at home.

There was little evidence, however, that either boy or both working together ever had the knowledge, the ways or the means to ever produce an actual bomb. That no doubt weighed with the judge's decision to impose no jail time.

According to TMJ4, the judge also sternly advised the youth to stay away from violent movies and not to look up how to make bombs on the internet.