Parents stopped potential school bomb plot, officials say

Ryan Schallenberger’s parents took him to a hospital three days before his Saturday arrest after he made a 4-inch indentation in the wallboard, prosecutor Jay Hodge said at a court hearing.

Schallenberger, 18, was not badly injured, but his parents also called a local mental health clinic that offered no help, Hodge said. A spokesman for the clinic would not confirm or deny any contact with the family, citing state law.

Schallenberger was arrested after his parents called police because he had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive commonly used as fertilizer and was employed in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Authorities checked the school for bombs over the weekend and on Monday students walked through newly installed metal detectors and past law officers. Still, officials said 60 percent of the school’s 544 students stayed home.

The quiet teenager with a slight build and a wispy mustache had apparently been planning the potentially deadly attack for months, authorities said.

‘This kid had the intellect and the means and the materials to carry it out,’ Hodge said.

Police said they discovered a hate-filled journal lauding the Columbine killers, an audiotape to be played after he perished during his rampage and a year’s worth of plans for the bombing that included a hand-drawn map of the school.

‘He’s just a soft-spoken little kid,’ Hodge said, adding that Schallenberger threatened to do something ‘very violent.’

Schallenberger is charged with making a bomb threat and possession of bomb-making material, Hodge said. He was assigned a lawyer, William Spencer, who did not return calls from The Associated Press.

Sheriff Sam Parker said the teenager’s ‘heartbroken’ parents deserved praise for calling authorities when they retrieved the ammonium nitrate from a post office after receiving a delivery notice at home.

‘Without the parents, Chesterfield County would’ve suffered. We thank them,’ Parker said.

Authorities said Schallenberger’s journal did not specify targets of an attack, or a date that he planned to carry it out. Randall Lear, the town’s police chief, said Schallenberger was ‘just mad at the world.’

Students said the teen often ate alone in the cafeteria and were surprised at the accusation.

‘I never though he’d be the dude to do something like this,’ said James Ford, a 16-year-old sophomore.

Some adults who had met the teen said the accusations were surprising.

‘He wouldn’t hurt a flea,’ said neighbor Carl Parker, who described Schallenberger as well-mannered and a sports fan who used to watch a neighbor’s pets when he was younger. ‘People just don’t know him like I do. He’s a good kid.’

The sheriff said Schallenberger bought the ammonium nitrate off eBay. A spokeswoman for the Internet auction site, Nichola Sharpe, said the substance is legal to sell though it must be specially shipped.