Emailed threats to NY, LA highlight worries schools face

Police said the threat referenced explosives, assault rifles and machine pistols and specifically named schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said he thought Los Angeles officials over-reacted with the closure and said the person who wrote the note claimed to be a jihadist but made errors that made it clear the person was a prankster.

Los Angeles officials announced Tuesday evening that schools would reopen Wednesday, with all city police officers ordered to be in uniform and extra patrol at schools.

“This morning at just after 5 I received a phone message from Chief Zimmerman, the school police, and he shared with me the threat that had been made to not one school, but many schools in this school district”, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said during a press conference.

Students ‘at every school in the New York City school district will be massacred, mercilessly.

New York City schools received a similar threat but officials there concluded that it was a hoax.

“Preliminary assessment is it was a hoax to disrupt school districts in large cities”, Schiff said on Twitter.

A senior law enforcement source told Fox News late Tuesday that the threats to Los Angeles and NY were sent via an anonymous email hosting service known as “cock.li email hosting”.

The threat came via an electronic message and mentioned backpacks and other packages, Cortines said. “And there is nothing you can do to stop it”, he or she bragged.

The threat came less than two weeks after a married couple inspired by Islamic State militants shot dead 14 people in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.

All LAUSD schools reopened after 900 schools were shut down Tuesday following a bomb threat.

Each email claims bombs have been hidden in lockers at several schools and that the supposed attack would also involve “nerve gas agents” and a follow-on armed attack with specific weapons. “It was so outlandish”, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters. Diocese officials said that decision had been left to individual school principals.

An hour later, NY students began arriving at school with no knowledge of the threat. Beck later said the email likely originated from somewhere much closer than Europe.

“I know the kids are anxious”, she said.

“I, as superintendent, am not going to take a chance with the students”.

“I said that Daddy and I didn’t really think this was necessary, but that it was good that people were working hard to keep us safe”, she said. NY has invested heavily in homeland security and terrorism response, which might make it easier to process the size of a threat, he said.

This was certainly the case during the recent San Bernardino Shooting which coincided with multiple “active shooter” and emergency drills in the area of the shooting, and even in the same building as the said terrorist event. She’s concerned about her daughter feeling secure in class.

A guide posted on the district’s website offered parents general advice on “psychological first aid” following a crisis, with tips such as listening to children who want to talk about the situation and setting an example with calm behavior.