Features

Blast rocks high school

Matthew Artz
Thursday October 10, 2002

Two Berkeley High School teachers may face disciplinary action for their role in a student’s detonation of a dry ice bomb on school grounds Wednesday afternoon. 

The bomb was made in a one liter Coca-Cola bottle and exploded outdoors next to the G Building on campus. Nobody was hurt in the explosion, said police information officer Mary Kusmiss. But, she noted that the force of such an explosion is strong enough to blow off a hand and the fragments from the shattered bottle could take out an eye. 

When dry ice, a gas, is mixed with a liquid in a sealed container it becomes volatile and eventually explodes. 

According to Kusmiss, a physics teacher gave students dry ice for a lab experiment and explained the science behind a bomb. 

A student then took his dry ice to a different teacher and asked if he could set off the bomb. The teacher gave permission and the student proceeded to set off the bomb out of doors at 2:34 p.m., Kusmiss said. Police were not sure if the second teacher was aware of the severity of the potential explosion. 

Police officers have spoken to both teachers, and the incident will be forwarded to the school district, Kusmiss said. Discipline for the student will also be left to school administrators.