Teacher's Home Raided After Principal Targeted With Pipe Bomb

BELLINGHAM (CBS) – The ATF has searched the home of a Bellingham High School teacher as they try to figure out who placed a pipe bomb on the principal's Jeep last month.

The blast in Lucas Giguere's Blackstone driveway tore apart the grill on his Jeep.

The teacher's son, Mike McNamara, insists that his mother is innocent and he's angry about the way agents burst into the home.

"Oh yeah I can confirm there was a search," McNamara said. "And they bashed the doors in, didn't even knock. We would have let them in."

McNamara described the early morning federal raid on his mother's home in Woonsocket, Rhode Island earlier this week. "Just blasted in, gangbusters so I didn't think it was right," he said.

"She's innocent of everything they said that she did," McNamara said. "Absolutely she has an alibi straight through the times in question."

The school department tells WBZ the teacher was placed on administrative leave on November 15th, two days before the pipe bomb was found.

"She's really upset. Deeply upset," McNamara said. "She's been teaching 20 years, that's what she does, what she loves and now they've been treating her like Ma Barker or something."

Nobody was hurt in the explosion but Giguere's neighbors and his own father said they could feel and hear the blast.

Authorities aren't saying much about the raid beyond confirming it did take place. They describe the investigation as ongoing.