Pocono News Section

Device Brings Bomb Squad to Holy Cross HS

Device Brings Bomb Squad to Holy Cross HS - Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 4:50PM EST

Reported by: David DeCosmo
Tuesday, Oct 16, 2007 @04:50pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- A suspicious package caused some tense moments at Holy Cross High School in Scranton Tuesday morning and brought the Scranton City Police Bomb Squad to the school.

What police found was a package which included a piece of pipe. There was also a wire which lead to the initial belief that responders might have been dealing with a pipe bomb!

Police and fire units rushed to the Scranton Campus of Holy Cross High School shortly before 9:00 A.M. after a man found a package outside the school and brought it inside.

Scranton Police Captain Carl Graziano said, "Allegedly the unknown gentleman brought what was described as a duffel bag with a pipe sticking out of it. He found it on the front steps out front, thought it may be one of the student’s, and brought it inside. The school personnel recognized that the bag didn't look right. They correctly responded and brought it outside into the parking lot, called us, we responded, our officers observed it, contacted our Hazardous Device Unit which came out and made sure the device was safe and disposed of it. Essentially it was not a functional explosive device but it was very similar to an explosive device so as to be construed as a simulated pipe bomb."

Police say the device posed no danger to the school or the neighborhood. School officials, of course, weren't taking any chances.

Principal James Marcks said, “We didn’t really have to move any students. We didn’t have any in these classrooms at that particular time so we held the students in the classrooms where they were for an extra 10 minutes while this took place. We did move people from the office, the guidance office, and the faculty out of those particular areas. We really didn't have to move students because there weren't any on this side of the building at that point.”

Police do not believe the man who brought the package into the building was the one who placed it outside. They're still trying to determine if it was an innocent collection of materials left on the scene or a deliberate prank designed to cause a scare.