Campus Alert Archive
De Anza

A Photo Clerk's 911 Call Forced 12,000 Students Off De Anza's Campus the Day Before Al DeGuzman's Planned 'Columbine-Style' Attack

CAbomb threatemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On January 30, 2001, De Anza College in Cupertino, California evacuated approximately 12,000 to 15,000 students after the arrest the previous night of 19-year-old De Anza student Al Joseph DeGuzman, who was found with roughly 30 pipe bombs, about 20 Molotov cocktails, firearms, and a hand-drawn diagram of the campus and timeline for a planned 12:30 p.m. attack on the campus cafeteria. A photo clerk had alerted police after developing his rolls of film showing him posing with the arsenal.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
De Anza College
Community College · CA
~25,000 studentsFoothill-De Anza District Police Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPA System
Approximate reconstruction363 chars
Attention all students, faculty, and staff. By order of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, De Anza College is being evacuated immediately. Please leave the campus in an orderly manner using the nearest exit. Do not return to your vehicle if you are inside a building. Evacuation will take approximately 33 minutes. Please cooperate with law enforcement.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

In 2001, De Anza did not yet have an Everbridge-style mass-notification system; the evacuation was announced via campus PA, classroom-by-classroom notification, and bullhorns
The full evacuation of approximately 12,000 to 15,000 students took 33 minutes — exceptionally fast for a community college of De Anza's size
More than 100 law enforcement officers from Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, San Jose Police, the FBI, ATF, and CHP searched campus for nine hours; no devices were ultimately found
UPDATEPhone
Approximate reconstruction314 chars
De Anza College will remain closed today, Tuesday, January 30. Law enforcement is conducting a thorough search of all campus buildings. Classes are canceled. Faculty and staff should not return to campus until further notice. Updates will be provided to local media and on the college's emergency information line.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

De Anza in 2001 used a phone-tree emergency information line as its primary update channel — a notable contrast with the SMS-first systems that would proliferate after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting
The closure lasted only the single day; classes resumed January 31, 2001 after the nine-hour campus search produced no explosives
Local TV (KGO, KPIX, KNTV) carried the closure as breaking news from mid-morning through evening — and in 2001 broadcast television was the most reliable update channel for off-campus students
Context

Background

De Anza College is a large community college in Cupertino, California, part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. On the night of January 29, 2001, a Longs Drugs photo clerk named Kelly Bennett developed a roll of film for 19-year-old De Anza student Al Joseph DeGuzman and saw images of him posing with what appeared to be pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, and firearms. She called police, and Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies arrested DeGuzman when he returned to the store to collect his prints. A search of his parents' San Jose home that night uncovered roughly 30 pipe bombs, about 20 Molotov cocktails, a semi-automatic rifle, a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, a hand-drawn diagram of De Anza's campus, and an audio tape DeGuzman had recorded as a manifesto (prosecutors later said he had collected materials for up to 60 bombs in total). Investigators concluded that the attack was planned for the following day, January 30, 2001, at the De Anza cafeteria, with bomb-planting to begin at 4:30 a.m. and the attack timed for 12:30 p.m. The college evacuated approximately 12,000 to 15,000 students starting at 9 a.m., and more than 100 law-enforcement officers from multiple agencies searched the campus for nine hours; no explosive devices were found on De Anza property. DeGuzman was ultimately convicted of 108 felony counts on April 26, 2002 and sentenced to a long prison term. The case is significant for the campus alert archive because it pre-dates the Virginia Tech shooting (April 2007) and the wave of mass-notification mandates that followed; the De Anza evacuation relied on the older toolkit of PA systems, classroom-by-classroom notification, phone trees, and broadcast media — and is remembered as one of the earliest 'Columbine-style' campus plots intercepted before the attack.
Analysis

Key Findings

The full evacuation of approximately 12,000 to 15,000 students took 33 minutes — exceptionally fast for a community college of that scale
The case pre-dated the post-Virginia Tech mandates for SMS-based mass notification; De Anza relied on PA, phone trees, and local TV
A photo clerk's 911 call — not any campus surveillance system — disrupted the planned attack
More than 100 officers from multiple agencies searched the campus for nine hours; no devices were found on college property
DeGuzman was convicted of 108 felony counts on April 26, 2002
Outcome
DeGuzman was arrested January 29, 2001 by Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies at the Longs Drugs photo counter where he had returned to pick up his prints. The De Anza campus was evacuated at 9 a.m. on January 30, 2001, while more than 100 officers from the Sheriff's Office, San Jose Police, the FBI, ATF, and California Highway Patrol searched the campus for explosives for roughly nine hours. No explosive devices were found on campus. DeGuzman was ultimately convicted of 108 felony counts on April 26, 2002.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Source
    Police Thwart 'Columbine-Style' Campus Assault (ABC News)
    abcnews.go.com
  2. Source
    Photos tipped possible college plot (UPI Archives)
    upi.com
  3. Student Paper
    Students evacuated from campus (La Voz News, De Anza student newspaper)
    lavozdeanza.com
  4. Source
    Bomb Suspect Faces 100 Years (CBS News)
    cbsnews.com
  5. Source
    PEOPLE v. DEGUZMAN (2003) FindLaw
    caselaw.findlaw.com
  6. News
    De Anza students recover from bomb scare (Los Altos Online)
    losaltosonline.com
Tags
bomb-threatevacuationcommunity-collegecaliforniacupertinoaverted-attackpre-virginia-techcolumbine-style-plotpa-systemphone-tree
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion