The suspension of two students from Bayfield High School last week amid rumors of bomb plots raises some troubling questions that parents, students and school administrators nationwide should be asking themselves.

The two students were suspended — one for five days, the other indefinitely — after district officials learned that at least one student had accessed Internet information on how to make a bomb. A third student, who was not suspended, may also be involved.

The question, of course, is involved in what?

One or more of the students — they are all male — apparently printed out information about building a bomb. The investigation is continuing, but as of the weekend it was unclear if this took place on school grounds.

At this point a civil libertarian might object: These kids broke no laws and whatever they did may not have even involved school property. Do we punish people for reading? Why were they suspended?

In a word, Columbine. After the killings in Littleton and at other schools, every kid with a pack of matches is suspect and every school administrator is on alert.

And, who can blame them? As excessive as it might seem to suspend a student simply for looking at some wacko’s Web site, imagine the response if something had happened and this had come out later. School administrators are charged with protecting children; its hard to fault them for taking their job seriously.

But — and this case has lots of "buts" — isn’t checking out "inappropriate" material normal in the high school years? Don’t teen-agers naturally gravitate toward things like that? Isn’t this just a matter of kids being kids?

It probably is, but Bayfield officials had particular reason to be on edge. Just last month extra security was added at the high school after three BHS students, reportedly mad at a teacher, took a vehicle, guns and ammunition from one of their parents’ homes and went on a crime spree that included robbery, shooting at police, car theft and kidnapping.

Still, the crazies win if we become so fearful that we lock up own children. We want them to be curious, to learn and to explore, even if they do venture into "inappropriate" once in a while. Most of us certainly did.

We just want to make sure they live through it.