LA school district closes all campuses after bomb threat

“We do get individual threats, we do evacuate schools, we do lockdown schools and do not release students until we notify parents”.

Los Angeles shut down 1,000 public schools on Tuesday, after an email threat that claimed to be from “an extremist Muslim who has teamed up with local jihadists” according to a congressman.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton, who himself once ran the LA Police Department, said it seemed the sender of the email appeared to be a fan of the TV show Homeland – and warned: “We can not allow ourselves to raise levels of fear”.

Yet, on the other side of the country, officials in NY made a different decision when faced with the exact same bomb threat, keeping schools open. “We do not know whether some or all of the threats are truthful”.

That’s how much LAUSD spent per student during the 2013-2014 school year based on their Average Daily Attendance (ADA) rate, which is defined as the number of days a student has attended school divided by the number of days of instruction. That prompted a nearby daycare center to evacuate.

Swatters, he added, have been found to operate from outside the United States.

The threat against the nation’s second largest school district was sent via email to a school board member Monday evening and was traced back to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany, according to LAUSD spokeswoman Ellen Morgan. “The investigation is ongoing as to where the threat originated from and who was responsible”. But school officials there decided not to close, after city leaders and law enforcement said they did not believe the threat was credible.

There were no threats made against Philadelphia schools on Tuesday, Raven Hill of the Philadelphia School District’s Office of Communications told Fox 29 News.

Cortines announced the school closures at about 7:15 a.m. PT (10:15 a.m. ET). They “are understandably very wary and on the lookout for the next attack”, she says.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti cautioned the public about jumping to conclusions.

“I think it’s important to take this precaution based on what has happened recently and what has happened in the past”, he said, speaking less than two weeks after a couple – a USA citizen of Pakistani background and his Pakistani wife – killed 14 people in San Bernardino in the deadliest terror strike on U.S soil since 9/11.

President Barack Obama has called for greater gun controls. “What’s going on?’ But they’re going to know what’s going on because either they watched you or they heard the news”.

Some high-profile public figures are urging Americans to resist succumbing to fear.

All Los Angeles Unified School District schools were closed on Tuesday after an anonymous threat against multiple schools in the district was emailed to a school board member.

The threat itself – focused on the school district, and no other institutions – is still being investigated and vetted, officials said.

Police Chief Beck said it was “irresponsible” to criticize the decision in the aftermath of the December 2 attack in San Bernardino. The terrorists have won. However, a law enforcement source cited by Reuters says LA authorities never consulted with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the specific decision to shutter the schools.