WAILUKU — Two Lanai High School students were arrested last month for setting off a homemade pipe bomb that destroyed lockers at the school in March, Maui County police said.

Damage was estimated at $1,500 to the lockers, with all 15 connected lockers having to be replaced, said Lt. Ernest Soares, commander of the Lanai Patrol District. He said no one was hurt in the explosion, which occurred on March 27, a Saturday, when school wasn't in session.

During a Maui Police Commission meeting Wednesday, Assistant Chief Danny Matsuura credited Lanai school resource officer Kimberly Masse with doing good investigative work to identify the suspects. She was investigating the theft of a phone at the school and talking to a suspect when she learned he was involved in the pipe bomb case, Matsuura said.

He said the students at first had planned to leave the pipe bomb under a 124-gallon propane tank in the center of the campus. But one suspect talked the other one out of doing that, and the pipe bomb was instead left by the lockers, Matsuura said.

One suspect was expelled from school, police said.

After being arrested last month, the two 18-year-old Lanai City men were released pending further investigation.