THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996                 TAG: 9605010397
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA  
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO                             LENGTH: Medium:   60 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Students were not evacuated from Manteo High School Tuesday when a custodian found an explosive device in a boys' bathroom because a custodian who found it took it immediately to assistant principal Carmen Melito and he rushed it out of the building. ``It was quicker and safer to do that than to wait while the students were evacuated,'' Melito said. A story Wednesday did not explain why students were not evacuated. Correction published in the North Carolina edition of The Virginian-Pilot, Thursday, May 2, 1996, page B5. ***************************************************************** BOMB FOUND IN MANTEO HIGH BATHROOM

An explosive device was found in the boys' bathroom at Manteo High School on Tuesday.

The device could have caused serious injury if it had gone off, police Detective Sam Ball said.

``It could've blown your hand off. It could've really hurt somebody if it had been detonated,'' Ball said. ``It could've been a lot worse.''

No one was hurt. Students were not evacuated.

Ball removed the bomb from the school.

A janitor found the 5-inch-long, 2-inch-wide, olive green explosive in the downstairs bathroom near the auditorium just before 11 a.m., Ball said.

``It had a black nylon cord that was rigged with a trip wire across a bathroom stall,'' the detective said. ``Luckily, it wasn't installed properly. Since the cord was wrapped around the handicapped handle (inside the stall), it didn't pull the plunger and go off like it could have.

``They rigged it it to look like it would go off if you opened the stall and hit that trip wire.''

Ball said the explosive ``could've been bought through Soldier of Fortune magazine.

``It wasn't a military-type thing,'' he said. ``But the label was for an anti-personnel mine.

``If you were on top of it, in a bathroom, it could've done some real harm.''

After the janitor found the bomb, school officials called the police, who, in turn, called the fire department. Then military bomb experts were summoned.

Marine officers stationed in Cherry Point, who were working in Duck on Tuesday, examined the explosive about 100 yards from the school.

Kathy Newbern, spokeswoman for Dare County Schools, said a faculty meeting about the incident will be held this afternoon.

``We're trying to find out who put it in there and why,'' Newbern said.

The bomb wouldn't have required extensive knowledge of explosives, Ball said. ``It was definitely something a student could've done.'' by CNB