NY, LA schools receive email threats; LA cancels classes

Originally, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday that while the email appears to have been routed through Germany, they believed the origin “to be much closer”. The case is being investigated by Los Angeles police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in coordination with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Downing said.

In the wake of a move that looks overly cautious in retrospect, defenders of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines’ decision to close the schools on Tuesday argue he had no choice.

Rep. Adam Schiff said the threat was a “hoax to disrupt school districts in large cities”.

School district officials announced the system-wide closure of more than 1,000 campuses around 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

“Even if there are no explosives-laden backpacks, no mysterious packages and no actual plan to harm children, the online threats that led to the closure Tuesday of every Los Angeles Unified school and preschool demonstrate for Angelenos what it means to be terrorized”, the Los Angeles Times wrote in an editorial.

A police vehicle is seen outside Granada Hills Charter High School on December 15, 2015.

The email, received by a number of board members on Monday night, threatened a “massacre” at district schools by someone who claimed to have teamed up with a local jihadist cell.

A similar email was sent to New York City’s public schools though officials dismissed it as a hoax and kept campuses open. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our kids, especially those that are coming to and from school that haven’t been notified yet of this safety threat”, a police officer said during the news conference.

The twin bomb threats against schools in Los Angeles and NY came less than two weeks after two shooters shot down 14 people and injured 21 at a southern California social services center.

Victor Asal, chairman of public administration at the State University of NY at Albany, said the decision both districts made was reflective of their respective experiences.

Other states that have seen recent proposals to increase penalties include New York, Pennsylvania and Maine.

The nation’s second-largest school district shut down Tuesday after a school board member received an emailed threat that raised fears of another attack like the deadly shooting in nearby San Bernardino.

“As we were kids growing up – I’m 51 – we always had the notion that it was a childish prank”, said Hwang, a Republican.

One of the things that concerned LA authorities was that the author used the district’s full name, showing a familiarity with the school system.

The city schools commonly get threats, but Cortines called this one rare.

Parents returned their children to school on Wednesday, with some expressing concern about not receiving notice about the school closures sooner.

The cost of the school shut down was a whopping $29 million. NY has invested heavily in homeland security and terrorism response, which might make it easier to process the size of a threat, he said.

“I don’t want this to be in the back of her head”, she said. In the investigation of the San Bernardino attack authorities are still trying to determine if the shooters were also targeting schools.