The students were all aged 10 and 11 years. They were too young, fortunately, to have the chemistry background to make a bomb that could actually explode, but old enough, it seemed, to want to try it.

The students were suspended during an investigation into whether they plotted to bomb a high school, as schools learn to cope with concerns about violence among increasingly younger students.

Officials at Clifton Elementary School in New Jersey called the police on Wednesday morning after finding a written plan by fifth-graders to detonate a bomb. Police began investigating and discovered a suspicious device that turned out to contain a harmless concoction of vinegar and cinnamon, according to Paul Milo of NJ Advance Media, although other sources have not confirmed its composition.

Read the article “Why Were 5th Graders with Vinegar and Cinnamon Suspended from School?” on csmonitor.com.