Los Angeles Schools Will Reopen After Threat Is Deemed Hoax

Parents in Los Angeles appeared to be divided over the district’s decision to close down schools, with many complaining over the lack of an alert system for such emergencies.

David McNew/Getty ImagesPolice converge on Edward R. Roybal Learning Center as all Los Angeles city schools were shut down after receiving a threat on December 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

“We can not allow ourselves to raise levels of fear”, said Bratton, who once ran the Los Angeles Police Department. Classes will go on as scheduled Thursday but with increased police presence at schools.

The sender of an email that shut down every public school in Los Angeles for a day threatened to shoot up and bomb campuses with 32 jihadi accomplices, a source confirmed Wednesday to BuzzFeed News.

(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu).

Bratton, who previously served as Los Angeles police chief from 2002 to 2009, said the person behind the threat may have been inspired by the hit television series “Homeland”.

Officials at the Los Angeles Unified School District and the New York City Department of Education received emails that used almost identical wording to warn of jihadist attacks and bombs, according to the New York Times.

A similar threat was also made against NY schools, but officials there said they deemed it not credible from the onset and accused Los Angeles school officials of badly overreacting. New York City received the same threat and did not close its schools.

“My last four years here at one of the district high schools has been absolute hell”.

Across the nation, small and large districts regularly encounter the age-old challenge of deciphering threats, complicated today by more sophisticated technology that can make them harder to trace.

“If this was not ISIS, not a terror organization, they’re nonetheless watching”, California Rep. Adam Schiff (D) told “Meet the Press” on Wednesday. “Based on recent events, I took this precaution out of an abundance of caution and to ensure safety and security in our schools”. About 37 percent of the threats were sent electronically, and almost a third resulted in schools being evacuated. He says, “It’s often better to keep them in school”. Schools reopened Wednesday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded it wasn’t credible, according to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“We are not making a decision about the color of a vehicle or what to eat for dinner”, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

The email also said: “Every school in the New York City district is being targeted”.

Lee Stein, a parent with a daughter in fifth grade at Ivanhoe Elementary School, said he heard about the closure via a news alert to his phone, which he confirmed by calling the principal.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he would not second-guess the decisions made in Los Angeles or NY.

The shooting in nearby San Bernardino that left 14 people dead earlier this month influenced the decision to close all the schools, attended by 640,000 students, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said.