Fisher Middle School has found the student responsible for a phony bomb threat last week and taken proper action, Principal Ken Lawrence-Emanuel said, which includes suspension up to five days. "It was a disruption of school activities," Lawrence-Emanuel said.

According to Lawrence-Emanuel, AT&T received a call shortly after 3 p.m. on April 23 from a pay phone near Fisher. "They just dialed '0' on the phone," Lawrence-Emanuel said. The child's voice told the operator that there was a bomb on campus.

AT&T notified the Los Gatos­Monte Sereno Police Department officials who, in turn, called the school. "We considered it a prank all along but we had to investigate it," Lawrence-Emanuel said.

Los Gatos­Monte Sereno Police Capt. Duino Giordano said the department sent two officers out, but "the school had apparently started evacuations before we got there."

School officials and police officers conducted a thorough search of the campus and found nothing.

The next day, Lawrence-Emanuel made an announcement to the entire student body, discussing the situation and asking for help in finding the student responsible. Lawrence-Emanuel said he received a tip in response and found the perpetrator.

"The child did it as a prank," Lawrence-Emanuel said. "It was not done maliciously or with the intent to scare anybody."

Giordano said the police department is obligated to respond to such calls. He recalled several years ago, when Fisher was in a similar scenario, and the police did find something: a device that was built like a bomb—but without the explosives.

"It was a very young individual who was obviously playing a joke," Giordano said.