Los Angeles Closes Down Public Schools Over ‘Electronic Threat’

Luis Rios took the day off and pulled out his first grader out of Burbank schools even though Burbank did not cancelled school.

Officials in LA defended the move to shut schools, with that city’s police chief dismissing the criticism as “irresponsible”.

“There certainly is no uniform approach”, he said. Also, Metro Los Angeles posted to Twitter that students with valid ID can ride all buses and trains for free until noon.

Against the backdrop of the San Bernardino attack, it’s “just human nature” for LA authorities to be more cautious, Tama said.

Sherman said the email referenced bombs or possible nerve agents and suggested there were about 32 people involved in possibly planting the devices.

A similar threat was received here in NY, but the mayor and police commissioner said there was no way they were closing the schools.

A law enforcement official with access to the document provided the email to The Associated Press.

Teachers and support personnel also have been ordered to stay away from schools. Hundreds of thousands of students were affected by the shutdown, and it’s still unclear who made the threat.

Former Sacramento County Sheriff – John McGinness says as a general rule of thumb, the more specific a threat it, then the more serious it should be taken.

New York City officials say they received the same threat but quickly concluded that it was a hoax. Students and staff were sent home around 5:30 p.m. Monday after the threat was made.

Seeming bemused, Bratton said the person behind the threat may have been a fan of the television show “Homeland”. The threat is not connected to any previous threats or the San Bernardino terror investigation, a senior law enforcement official said.

Every time a threat came in, the schools was closed, evacuated, and police came in to search the building.

“We can not allow ourselves to raise levels of fear”, he said.

Bratton once served as police chief in Los Angeles, and Cortines once ran the schools in NY. When they make a decision, they have to take into account the safety of the children of Los Angeles.

“It (the threat) was not to one school, two schools, or three schools”.

Many parents were supportive of school officials’ better-safe-than-sorry approach.

“The circumstances in the neighboring San Bernardino, I think what has happened in the nation, I think what happened internationally” played into the decision, Cortines said.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said “the preliminary assessment” of the threat is “that it was a hoax or something created to disrupt school districts in large cities”.

The district has more than 900 schools and 187 public charter schools.

The email reportedly was routed through Germany – which means nothing, since any skilled hacker knows how to disguise an IP address’s origin.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

“He shared with me that some of the details talked about backpacks, talked about other packages”, Cortines said. She’s concerned about her daughter feeling safe in class.

“I want to be very careful because that does not mean it was conclusively one thing or another yet”, the mayor said. “At the Dream Center in Echo Park, the center opened its doors to dozens of displaced kids who parents had to get back to work”.