TABIONA, Duchesne County -- Two teenage boys arrested Thursday for allegedly plotting to bomb a school prom have told police the threat was nothing more than a joke meant to get attention.
But Duchesne County sheriff's officers and Tabiona School officials aren't laughing."They're saying it's just a joke, but when do you stop believing something is a joke? You can't take anything as a joke anymore," Duchesne County Sheriff Ralph Stansfield said.
"They got our attention, now we've got their attention, and I hope the judge gives them some real good attention."
The incident was one of several threats made to Utah schools and students since the Littleton, Colo., shootings. A 14-year-old was also arrested Thursday after detonating a homemade bomb at American Fork Junior High School.
Since the Colorado shootings, the two Tabiona boys had adopted the black trench coat-wearing habit of the Colorado killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Duchesne County School Superintendent John Aland said.
Tabiona School -- which houses 180 students from kindergarten through 12th grade -- was evacuated and searched by police and bomb detection dogs Thursday after several students reported hearing the boys, 15 and 16, talk about their plan to blow up one student's car and the school prom, which is scheduled for tonight.
The 10-hour search uncovered no bombs, but deputies did find live ammunition and spent bullet shells in the lockers of the two boys, Duchesne County Cpl. Wally Hendricks said.
Police also found a bomb-making recipe on a slip of paper in one boy's wallet, Hendricks said. Authorities have been unable to locate one pound of missing explosive powder that the boys had access to.
Both boys were taken to Duchesne's juvenile detention facility Thursday, and a detention hearing was scheduled for this morning, Stansfield said. He said his deputies would recommend to the judge that the boys remain in detention until at least next week.
A third suspect, who is believed to be involved to a lesser extent, was also questioned by police.
Tonight's prom will go ahead as planned, although Stansfield said he has assigned a number of deputies to the event and "security will be very tight."
Aland said it appears the youths may have planned to act out violently in school even before the April 20 slayings of 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
Duchesne authorities became more concerned when a prospector in the area said explosive devices were missing from his property.
The Littleton siege has had an unprecedented ripple effect in schools across Utah and the country. Schools everywhere are in a panic mode, receiving bomb threats and threats of terrorist attacks, said June Arnette, associate director of the National School Safety Center in Westlake, Calif.
"Nobody can ignore those things. Whether or not schools are safe is not the issue. It's the perception of safety at this point that matters."
-- In Canada, a 14-year-old boy was charged with murder; five Brooklyn youths were charged with conspiracy; a pipe bomb was found in an Oklahoma school; and in New Jersey, all schools in the Hillsborough district in Somerset County were closed today after several students received e-mail messages warning: "If we think what happened in Colorado was bad, wait until you see what happens at Hillsborough Middle School on Friday."
-- Closer to home, a 14-year-old American Fork boy was arrested Thursday for detonating a homemade bomb in a toilet during lunch hour at his junior high school.
American Fork Police Lt. Andy Hale said no one was hurt in the blast but the toilet in the men's restroom was destroyed. The American Fork Junior High School student was fingered by other students after police conducted several interviews.
"It blew the porcelain right off," Hale said. "I imagine it will be out of service for a while."
The bomb -- a plastic syringe casing packed with black powder -- was placed in a toilet and flushed. The school was not evacuated after the explosion or while police investigated the noon incident, which caused about $300 in damage.
The powder was extracted from commercially produced fireworks. The student used a recipe he downloaded from the Internet to create the explosive device, said Michael Robinson, district spokesman.
"In the wake of all the other stuff that has been happening, I'm afraid this is going to get blown out of proportion," Hale said. "It's just not very good timing."
-- On Wednesday, a Cedar City high school was evacuated and classes were canceled for the rest of the day after false bomb threats were made to the high school and Iron County School District.
-- That same day, police in Layton found pipes and gunpowder at the home of a 14-year-old boy who was turned in by his classmates at Central Davis Junior High. Police questioned two 15-year-old boys in the matter and found a pipe bomb at one of the boys' houses.
Since the Colorado shooting, the Jordan, Salt Lake City and Granite school districts have reported threats almost daily, but they are not the only ones affected by the shootings or rumored violence.
-- Tooele High School is counseling three teens who had ventured into the Trench Coat Mafia's Internet chat room before the Colorado shootings, said principal Sandy Shepard. The teens did not know the Columbine assailants, nor did they think those kids were capable of such atrocities.
"These kids have no apparent reason or cause to do violence in our school. I think (they) were pretty amazed they were chatting with people who could actually do that," Shepard said.
The school contacted the students' parents, who searched their homes for dangerous materials but found nothing, Shepard said.
-- In Murray, Horizon Elementary families were notified of a Wednesday lockdown following "threats from apparent gang members that they intended to bomb some schools," states a letter from principal Karen Johnson. Police were contacted. The letter also asks visitors and volunteers to wear a badge for identification.
"I had a choice as your principal. I could have ignored the threat or acted on it. When your child's and the staff's welfare is at risk, I will always choose to deal with the truth," Johnson wrote.
Still, actual violence and real bombs have been rare, law-enforcement officials and educators say, and what has been stalking the schools is an inordinate fear of death -- largely fueled by the terrible images of Littleton -- that has reached epidemic proportions in a nation that seems to have no choice but to overreact.
"We have to react to every little thing now because we can't separate the real from the imagined," said Pat Lewis, superintendent of the school district in Coalinga, Calif., where two boys were arrested this week for saying they wanted to blow up their schools. "We take no chances. Safety comes first."
Deseret News staff writers Jeffrey P. Haney, Jennifer Toomer-Cook and the New York Times News Service contributed to this report.