The School Safety Division’s Sgt. Justo Cancel was justifiably alarmed when he stopped a 13-year-old student from entering Junior High School 148 in the Bronx last month. The SSA had discovered the youth had unusual implements in his bookbag definitely not associated with anything he was studying in school.

Cancel said he became apprehensive when he found the boy was trying to sneak vials of gasoline covered with aluminum foil into the school, one of three at the site housing about 700 students from fifth to eighth grades.

The school safety agent said he was on duty at the main entrance of JHS 148 on Third Ave., between 169th and 170th Sts., shortly after 10 a.m. April 5 checking students in as they entered the building when the incident occurred.

To get into the school, everyone must pass through a metal detector. Whatever they are carrying must be passed through an x-ray machine, which glows red if any metal is detected. being carried into the school.

“This young man came through the doors and there was an immediate strong odor of gasoline,” Cancel said. “I asked him to put his bag through the x-ray and the whole monitor turned completely red.”

When the Sergeant asked the youngster what he had in the bookbag, the student replied that he had some liquids “to clear my nose up.”

As School Safety Agents Sandra Pires and Diann Howard stood by, Cancel asked the student to open his bookbag. “He didn’t want to open it, so I did,” Cancel said. “When I did, I found three little plastic bottles wrapped in aluminum foil.”

Cancel again asked the youth what was in the bottles. He again replied that it was “just liquids for my nose,” the Sergeant said.

As the other officers guarded the student, Cancel opened one of the bottles and took a sniff. The odor was distinctive. “What are you doing with gasoline?” Cancel asked the student, who responded that he had “just bought it.”

Cancel then called for SSA Hiram Pinto to conduct a search of the youth for matches or a cigarette lighter. As Pinto did so, Cancel opened another aluminum foil wrapped item in the bookbag. When it proved to be a tupperware container also filled with gasoline, Cancel had Howard call 911, which brought both police and firefighters to the school.

When word spread that the youngster had tried to smuggle in gasoline, the school’s chancellor and the commanding officer of the School Safety Division also came to make sure everything was being done to assure the safety of everyone in the schools.

The youngster was turned over to police and fire investigators who are still seeking to determine what the youth had planned to do with the gasoline, and how he had obtained it.

Cancel and all the officers who had discovered the threat and maintained order at the three school buildings when it was found received commendations at ceremonies May 11.