Teen charged with felony over explosives

A 15-year-old Lewis and Clark High School student who was expelled after school officials found bomb-making documents in his notebook was charged Thursday with unlawful possession of explosives, a Class C felony.

His next appearance in Spokane juvenile court was set for early next month.

Police took from the boy’s bedroom a small metal cylinder with a fuse and explosive powder inside.

Connor Potucek was released to his parents’ custody Tuesday, a day after he was arrested for building an improvised explosive device without a license.

Police said earlier this week that Potucek had not threatened anyone or taken any of the items to school.

He had been emergency-expelled, but once the court released him, Spokane Public Schools decided to work with the family to get him back to school as soon as possible, according to district spokeswoman Terren Roloff.

His parents are meeting with school officials today to get their son back into Lewis and Clark.

Potucek was arrested after a student contacted a Lewis and Clark school security officer with news that Potucek’s notebook held bomb-making instructions, according to a search warrant affidavit filed Tuesday.

Potucek told the police that he had made Napalm over the 2004 Christmas holiday and that he had in the past filled CO2 cartridges with pyrodex, a black powder substitute that’s sold in outdoors stores. Potucek told police he ignited them over the summer of 2004.

The search warrant showed that Potucek possessed a 16-ounce container of pyrodex along with two butane torches, a MAP (propane and acetylene mixture) gas torch and a CO2 cartridge filled with powder and equipped with a fireworks fuse and a rubber cap and wrapped in teal-colored duct tape, which was hidden in his room behind some books. He also had four shotgun shells hidden in his closet, which he told police he planned to break down and use the primers as detonators in future explosive devices, according to the affidavit.

The boy’s father, Martin Potucek, a published author of a mountain bike trail guide, said the incident has been blown out of proportion, although he adds his son is not blameless. He added, “I guess I’m a little disappointed about the way LC has responded.”

Potucek, who has taught English at the University of Idaho and Washington State University, said he would have liked the chance for him or his wife to handle the matter before police were contacted. His wife did give police permission by phone to enter their home, according to the affidavit.

Potucek said he was out of state working and his wife, a surgery nurse, was called by the school Monday afternoon, but couldn’t leave the emergency room.

He said his South Hill neighbors have responded to the news by sending him and his wife cards and flowers.

“The common sentiment is, ‘Isn’t this an overreaction?’ ” Potucek said.

On Wednesday, he called and asked police about his computer, which his son used to download bomb-making information. Officers took the computer and forced him and his family from his home for an eight- to 10-hour search, Potucek said. By Thursday, he’d still not heard a response from his calls.

“I’m a writer,” he said. “I don’t have access to my primary tool.”

The police search included fully padded explosive experts who removed the bomb, a CO2 cartridge filled with 1 ounce of powder, which was taken out with a long pole.

The Spokesman-Review sent out a mass e-mail to residents within the Lewis and Clark attendance zone, asking whether the matter was handled appropriately. Of the 23 responses received, most were very supportive of the school district and police actions.

“I don’t think we dare take any chance because we could be like some of the other schools in our nation that didn’t react in time so it cost lives,” Jackie Beaudry said.

“I think that catching this potential bomb maker before he hurt himself or others was great work on the part of the students who observed his behavior,” said Paul Paroff. “I would much prefer the pre-emptive invasion of privacy exercised in this case, with probable cause, than the piecing together of the fragments after a catastrophe.”

Susan Adams questioned the actions and wrote, “Does this mean that any student who has legally purchased materials in his home and has his parent’s consent to use these materials may be arrested because someone at school feels they are threatening even if the student threatened no one?”

David Bauer said it was a “terrible overreaction.”

“When I was in my high school chemistry class we thought we were pretty cool because we figured out how to make gunpowder,” Bauer said. “Today we’d be suspended from school, our homes searched and parents publicly humiliated.”