Los Angeles closes schools for students after threat

After more than 1,500 school district sites had been inspected by nightfall, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti conceded that the message appeared to have been a hoax.

The LAUSD closure applied to all campuses – more than 900 of them.

Sharon Sandoval said the threat frightened her, but she didn’t have the luxury of leaving work for the day.

Officials with the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also took part in the investigation.

“She’s going to freak”, he said.

Kim Jones, a teacher at King Middle School in Silver Lake, said she took that approach with her 11- and 12-year-old sixth graders.

The Los Angeles Unified School District comprises more than 21,000 buildings spread over 720 square miles (1,865 square kilometers) within Los Angeles and nearby communities.

But it certainly gave us a greater sense of confidence and we saw this in multiple cities, something Los Angeles didn’t have the information on when the superintendent here made his decision to close the schools earlier.

The LAUSD said on Twitter that classes and after-school activities would resume Wednesday, adding: “When it comes to the well-being of our children, we will never take chances”.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says in a statement that “the preliminary assessment is that it was a hoax or something created to disrupt school districts in large cities”.

So it is understandable that Cortines, Beck and others in Los Angeles would feel they needed to make their own decisions – and to do so quickly – rather than rely on national security officials to do an analysis before advising them what to do. The closures led to a loss of $29 million in state funding, but State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said funds could be reimbursed.

Despite that determination, Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck stood by the decision to close the schools. “It was so generic, so outlandish and posed to numerous school districts simultaneously… the assumption of the NYPD (was) exactly the same, that, in fact, it would be a huge disservice to our nation to close down our school system”.

De Blasio said the threat wasn’t credible. “It is also very easy to criticize a decision when you have no responsibility for the outcome of that decision”.

Authorities said they had ordered all public transport in Los Angeles to be free of charge for students on Tuesday to enable them to get home or move about the sprawling West Coast city.

All students who were already at their schools were sent back home. “What we do know is that it will be safe for our children to return to school tomorrow”.

“We need the cooperation of the whole of Los Angeles today”, said school board President Steve Zimmer.

Dr. Karen Rogers, a child psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, suggests comparing the shutdown to preparations for earthquakes – a practice familiar to every California schoolchild.

Buses were returned to their lots because they’re not picking up students, Cortines said.

Although the IP address was in Germany, the origin of the threat was still unknown, according to the police chief.

“I can tell you that we know of no other threats that we’re aware of, unless other agencies have gotten specifics outside of LAUSD”, said Steven Zipperman, chief of the LA School Police. “I’ve asked for all schools to be searched today”. Other campuses will be open.

The threatening email sent to the New York City school superintendent warned that every school would be attacked with pressure cooker bombs, nerve agents and machine-guns.