The juvenile who made the threat via email has been arrested and is awaiting charges from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office.

Students were evacuated and instruction was suspended on June 10 while school administrators and sheriff's deputies scoured the grounds for a possible bomb. A message had been sent to Principal Christopher Farmer which stated, "There has been a bomb threat on Redwood."

"Under those circumstances, we don't take any risks," Farmer said. Administrators agreed to evacuate the campus of the students who had already arrived, and sent away the adults who were in the process of dropping off their children. At the same time, the school reported the threat to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

Teachers led students to the school's lower field while Farmer and deputies secured the campus. Police dogs were also brought in and searched each room. "We eventually declared the school safe," Farmer said. The search ended at approximately 10:10 a.m., Farmer said, but the Saratoga Union School District had decided to suspend school for the day, asking parents to come pick up their students.

"The students behaved impeccably," Farmer said. "They responded in a very mature and responsible fashion." The teachers were professional and efficient in their organization of their classes. With a monthly emergency drill at Redwood, "responsibilities were allocated so we know who is responsible for what," Farmer said. Parents were similarly behaved, coming to pick up their students in an orderly manner.

Farmer said there was minimal disruption to classes, since students had finished taking finals and were preparing for the end of school. "It was a day when we did not have end-of-year assemblies planned," Farmer said.

The next day, classes resumed as usual. Farmer wrote a letter to parents, informing them of what had happened, and asked families with relevant information to share it with the school, "and we appealed to students," he said. The school's Parent Teacher Association representatives had also called all the parents listed in their directory.

In the meantime, sheriff's deputies conducted a search for the culprit. "Our detectives turned it over to REACT, the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team," said Terrance Helm, sheriff's public information officer. "It's like the FBI of computer teams."

According to Farmer, Howard Lorenz, district assistant information systems coordinator, had been invaluable in the search. Farmer said Lorenz worked with the REACT team in investigating the district's technological equipment.

Within 24 hours, they had traced the location of the computer and identified the boy associated with the email. Deputies arrested him on the campus of his school on the afternoon of June 12.

Helm said the case is ongoing, since a motive or criminal charges have not yet been determined. "It's a felony, what he did, and there are a lot of costs involved," Helm said. "These crimes are serious and they're not to be taken lightly. Just because you're a juvenile doesn't mean you'll get away with it."

In April, Fisher Middle School also received a bomb threat and evacuated its campus in response. The threat proved to be false and was a prank pulled by a student, who had dialed "0" from a pay phone and told the operator that there was a bomb on the Fisher campus. Police did not arrest the student, and the school took appropriate disciplinary action.

Farmer said although the bomb threat was unfounded, he does not regret evacuating the school. "The safety of our students is paramount," Farmer said.