A 15-year-old Blaine High School student is being investigated by police in connection with boxes of bullets that were found overnight at the school.

The discovery led school officials to lock down the campus Thursday morning, keeping at least 300 students in their classrooms.

Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities from three counties, bomb-sniffing dogs and school officials conducted an intensive search of school buildings for weapons or ammunition.

Nothing more was found, but the disruption prompted school officials at noon to cancel classes and on-campus activities for the rest of the day.

Blaine teams played scheduled road games Thursday night, however, and Principal Rob Anderson said the school planned to resume a normal schedule today.

"We are confident that [the suspect] acted alone, and at this point I am not concerned about the safety and security of our staff and students," Anderson said Thursday afternoon.

Dml - Star Tribune
KYNDELL HARKNESS �kharkness@startribune.com 01/06/10Blaine High School on lock down[Blaine High School students headed for their cars after school was canceled for the rest of the day. Before students were released all of the entrances to the school were blocked Thursday morning as a part of a containment lockdown at the school.

He said that no explicit threat was made against the school, and that students and staffers were never in any danger.

Blaine Police Chief Chris Olson didn't say how police and Anoka County detectives connected the male suspect with the bullets. The student, whom police called "a person of interest," lives in Coon Rapids.

Officials said a custodian found the bullets in a restroom trash can in a portable classroom building, just outside the main building. Anderson said he learned of the incident when he arrived at the school at 7 a.m. Thursday, and directed that all students already at school be locked into their first-period classrooms while the campus was searched.

For nearly three hours, police scoured the buildings. Officials searched every locker in the school, which includes 2,900 students and more than 240 staff members. Anderson said he kept students apprised of the situation through the public address system and notified parents with voice messages on their home phones.

Anderson said that a Blaine police officer assigned full time to the school was there Thursday, along with two security guards who work there.

The last lockdowns at Blaine High occurred in 2005, after a threat was scrawled on a restroom wall in May and after gunfire from a domestic disturbance at a nearby home in October.

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455