Police arrest 2 following explosion at Petaluma’s Kenilworth Junior High School

Police arrested two teens after a small explosive was detonated inside a bathroom at Kenilworth Junior High School during lunch Wednesday.

The explosion prompted panic among students and a school-wide evacuation, according to police and school administrators.

In an alert issued Wednesday evening, Petaluma police said the explosive was “similar to that of an M-1000.” The unidentified teens were said to have set it off inside a boy’s bathroom near the school quad.

An M-1000 is much larger than a typical firecracker, containing about 30 grams of flash powder.

The teens were arrested later that day without incident from their homes and charged with felony possession of an explosive device, felony vandalism and conspiracy to commit a crime.

For Petaluma police, the incident began at about 11:37 a.m. when they started receiving “several calls about a large explosion” at the junior high school, and students were being evacuated to the blacktop, said Lt. Matthew Parnow.

“Our officers quickly got on scene and did a search of the school and they found what is believed to be a detonated firecracker in one of the bathrooms near the quad,” Parnow said.

Police “isolated” the scene around the bathroom and did a secondary search of classrooms while students remained on the blacktop.

As of about 1 p.m., about 20 minutes before school ended for the day, the school bathrooms remained closed.

“Everybody was safe and it seems like the explosion was an isolated incident,” Parnow said.

The police department’s explosive and firearm search dog, K-9 Pinky, was on site and searched the school grounds. Police did not locate more fireworks or explosives at the school associated with the arrested students, Parnow said.

Parents and guardians – including some who heard directly from students and others who were notified via either a school-wide alert or a police alert about the campus incident – stood outside the school before 12:30 p.m. waiting to pick up students.

Some said they were worried and did not know anything beyond the school and police alerts. Others said they’d received calls from students who ran from the school toward the Leghorn Plaza shopping center after they heard the explosion.

“Everybody tried to find an escape to leave,” said Karina Umanzor Borjas, 14, who was in the school quad during lunchtime when the firework went off. Students were piling and falling over one another as they tried to escape, she said.

Her mother, Karina Borjas, arrived early to take her daughter home, as did many other parents who lined up outside the school’s office once school officials allowed people on campus at about 1 p.m.

Petaluma City Schools Superintendent Matthew Harris issued an alert to parents at 1:04 p.m. advising them of an explosion at the school.

“There were no injuries and students have now returned to class,” he wrote.

Parent Grete Hansen arrived early to pick up her daughter at lunch as she usually does and saw numerous police cars out front. She soon received a notification from the school and then the police alert within minutes.

She said school representatives stood outside with parents and were “doing a really good job” of informing parents on what was going on.

In December 2022, a firecracker on the Kenilworth campus caused panic after it was mistaken for a gunshot.

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or jennifer.sawhney@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.