Latest on school threats: Indiana districts close schools

The district says it will resume classes January 5. The Texas district did not elaborate.

School districts in Houston, Dallas, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and San Francisco all decided on Thursday that emailed threats were not credible and were similar to ones sent to schools in New York City and Los Angeles earlier this week.

“This started yesterday when a parent notified our school resource officer that there was a rumor going around, that a student overheard another student, threatening to get a gun and come into the school and start shooting”, said Danville Police Chief William Wright. Schools opened for the district’s 79,000 students on Thursday.

The nearby Plainfield Community School Corporation just west of Indianapolis also canceled classes due to a threat “directed to the high school”.

The threat is similar to those that shut down the Los Angeles Unified School District Tuesday, according to a message to parents from Long Beach school officials.

Plainfield police were alerted to the possible threat early this morning, but said in the release there wasn’t any danger to students or staff after a “thorough preliminary investigation”. They later arrested a senior Danville student, who Wright says made additional online comments.

As a precaution, however, officials said schools would have increased security.

The Dallas Independent School District, with approximately 160,000 students, also said it would keep schools open after emergency officials had evaluated the claims of violence made in an email received on Wednesday.

The third individual apparently made the Facebook postings that spurred both the Danville district and Plainfield district to cancel classes. As a precautionary measure, law enforcement officers are now conducting random sweeps of school district buildings to ensure student safety.

School officials in the in cities of Danville and Plainfield cited concerns about the safety of students and staff in announcing the closures of schools.

In a tweet sent Thursday morning, Broward County Public Schools in South Florida also said a threat had been received, but students should report to school as usual.