It can be. Knowingly making a false report that a bomb or other explosive has been or will be placed at a school, or anywhere else, is a crime under Penal Code section 148.1, and every form of it is a wobbler: it can be charged as a felony or a misdemeanor. No bomb has to exist, and no one has to be hurt.

One statute, four ways to commit it

Penal Code section 148.1 covers four kinds of conduct. Which subdivision applies depends on who received the report and how it was made:

  • Subdivision (a): reporting to a listed recipient, knowing the report is false, “that a bomb or other explosive has been or will be placed or secreted in any public or private place.” The list includes peace officers described in Penal Code sections 830.1, 830.2, and 830.33(a); fire department or fire service employees; district attorneys and their deputies; Department of Justice employees; airline, airport, railroad, bus line, and telephone company employees; newspapers, radio and television stations, and their reporters; and “occupants of a building.”
  • Subdivision (b): making the same knowingly false report to any other peace officer, if the officer was performing their duties at the time and the person knew or should have known the listener was a peace officer.
  • Subdivision (c): maliciously informing any other person that a bomb or other explosive has been or will be placed somewhere, knowing the information is false.
  • Subdivision (d): maliciously giving, mailing, or sending a false or facsimile bomb to another person, placing one, or maliciously possessing one, with intent to make another person fear for their own safety or the safety of others.

Every version is a wobbler

All four subdivisions carry the same punishment: up to one year in county jail, or a felony sentence under Penal Code section 1170(h). A crime that can be punished either way is a wobbler. Under Penal Code section 17(b), it becomes a misdemeanor in listed situations, for example when the prosecutor files it as a misdemeanor or when the court declares it a misdemeanor, such as when granting probation.

None of the subdivisions requires an injury, and subdivisions (a) through (c) apply to a claimed bomb in any public or private place, so a school is covered the same way as any other location.

How this differs from a false emergency call

Penal Code section 148.3, the general false-emergency statute, stays a misdemeanor unless someone was killed or suffered great bodily injury because of the hoax and the caller knew or should have known that such harm was likely. A false bomb report under section 148.1 can be charged as a felony without any such outcome.

A threat can also be a criminal threat

A statement that threatens to bomb a place or hurt people can also be charged as a criminal threat under Penal Code section 422 when that statute’s elements are met, including a threat to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury and reasonable sustained fear in the person threatened. Section 422 applies “even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out.”

School discipline is separate from the criminal case

For a student, the school has its own process. Under Education Code section 48900, a pupil may be suspended or recommended for expulsion only if the superintendent or principal determines that the pupil committed a listed act, such as having “threatened to cause physical injury to another person,” and the act must be related to a school activity or school attendance. Education Code section 48900.7 separately allows suspension or a recommended expulsion for “terroristic threats against school officials or school property.” Its definition includes a willful threat to commit a crime that would cause death, great bodily injury, or more than $1,000 in property damage, made with intent that it be taken as a threat (even without intent to carry it out), that causes reasonable sustained fear, including fear for school district property.

These are school discipline rules for enrolled pupils, not criminal penalties. They turn on the school administrator’s determination, not on a criminal conviction.

Talk to a lawyer about a false bomb report accusation

A bomb-threat accusation, even one described as a joke, can be filed as a felony from the start. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley can look at who received the report, what was said, and whether the facts fit the subdivision charged. Call (800) 755-5174.