Titusville High School bomb-like device a 'hoax'

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - A school in Brevard County was evacuated on Thursday and shut down for the day, because of suspicious devices which were later determined to be a hoax.

Titusville Police say a device was constructed to look like a bomb.   Students were scared by it and a day of learning was lost, officials say.  

Around 7:45 a.m. a janitor at Titusville High School found what she thought was a bomb in a breezeway.  It was described as a PVC pipe, wrapped with duct tape. School officials called the police and over 800 students were ushered from the grounds.  Students already at the school were transported offsite. There were about 100 students on campus when the call went out to the police department. Another 700 en route via buses were diverted.

A bomb squad and the Brevard County Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted an investigation and determined two devices to be a prank.

"It's extremely taxing on law enforcement and schools. These are not victim-less crimes. We had a whole school full of kids and faculty who lost an entire day of education because of this," said Matt Reed with the Brevard Public Schools.

Police investigators said that they are confident they will catch who is responsible.  They tell us that classes will resume on Friday.

“We will be aggressively working this investigation to identify who is responsible for this incident because it was a tremendous drain on public safety resources", said Deputy Chief Todd Hutchinson.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Titusville Police Department at (321) 264-7800 or can remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward by calling Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS.