Colorado student taken into custody after small explosion at high school

As of Friday, 35 to 40 school-based threats have been made, according to the FBI.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
PARKER, Colo. -- A high school was evacuated Friday and a student was taken into custody after a small explosion outside the building, but no injuries or damage were reported, authorities said.
Authorities have not said what caused the explosion at Ponderosa High School in Parker, about 15 miles southeast of Denver.
A junior at the school was being questioned about chemicals in a backpack that "could have been mixed to create another small sound-making device," school and sheriff's officials said in a statement.
They did not immediately give more information. Classes were canceled for the day at the school that has 1,958 students, according to state figures.
Other schools around the country investigated possible threats of violence after this week's massacre on the Virginia Tech campus and on the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.
As of Friday, the FBI counted 35 to 40 mostly school-based threats, with everything from bombs to guns to mere words, some leading to arrests.
"This is serious business. This is not a time for jokes and it needs to stop," said FBI special agent Richard Kolko.
Latest threats
A middle school in Lamar, Colo., about 160 miles southeast of Denver, was evacuated after a handwritten threat to blow up the school was discovered.
In Iowa, a community college campus was closed after "VT Here Today" was scrawled in marker on a women's restroom stall. Officials with Scott Community College's campus in Bettendorf said they know who made the apparent threat but would not release more information.
"The problem is events like these attract a lot of attention, and rightly so. Excessive attention to the Virginia Tech shootings drives the copycats, and that is exactly what is going on now," said Jack Levin, a professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University in Boston.
"I think the copycat thing in general has a short life span, maybe a few weeks. Then it will be over for most students," Levin said.
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