AGOURA HILLS : 2 Boys Sentenced in School Firebombing

Two 17-year-old boys were sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and ordered to pay some damages for firebombing Agoura High School in October, an attack that caused nearly $500,000 worth of damage, authorities said.

Although he rejected the prosecution’s request to send the former Agoura High students to a probation camp, Sylmar Juvenile Court Commissioner Jack Gold said the boys would be sent to the harsher California Youth Authority if they violate their terms of probation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Eduards Abele said.

“I felt they should have been sent to a camp for a period of time, because they needed to be given a strong signal about what was obviously a very serious crime,” Abele said. “But the sentence by the judge was not inappropriate.”

The boys, whose names were withheld because they are juveniles, spent three months at a CYA facility for psychological evaluation, after pleading guilty to arson charges earlier this year, Abele said. One of the boys is from Westlake Village, the other lives in Thousand Oaks.

The amount they must pay will be determined by the Los Angeles County Probation Department, Abele said.

The fire was set the evening of Oct. 26 and, though confined to the athletic director’s office, caused heat and smoke damage throughout the school’s administration building at 28545 Driver Ave.

Prosecutors said the fire apparently was set in an attempt to destroy records kept on one of the students, in an attempt to keep him from being transferred to a continuation school.