School terror threats in Los Angeles and New York considered hoaxes

The contrasting responses, and the not-so-subtle cross-country backbiting that marked the day – Bratton said Los Angeles had overreacted, and officials here defiantly said they had not – was to some extent a reflection of the long and subtle competition between these two coastal cities, whose leaders have sometimes shuttled back and forth.

Police Chief Beck said it was “irresponsible” to criticize the decision in the aftermath of the December 2 attack in San Bernardino.

Schools chief Ramon Cortines and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said they acted out of an abundance of caution in closing the schools – and the decision was backed up by the city’s police chief.

New York City officials decided not to close schools over their version of the email Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers were deployed to campuses.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that the email appeared to have originated from overseas. The person also claimed to be a jihadist but made errors that suggested the writer was really a prankster, including spelling the word “Allah” with a lower-case “a” and making no reference to the Koran.

Both Los Angeles and NY received an nearly identical email threats to their schools.

Bakersfield law enforcement is not actively investigating any threats here and they are not assisting the police investigation in L.A., but will remain on alert.

The decision to close the schools left many Los Angeles parents in the lurch and unsure of what to do with children who would normally be in school.

California has been stunned by the massacre in San Bernardino, about an hour east of Los Angeles, carried out by US-born Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik.

FOX 11 spoke with Stephanie Marcy, a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

“I’ll tell my 4 grader everything but the kindergartner we do it to their level”, Johnson said.

The sudden closure disrupted the routines of many Los Angeles families.

Officials offered few details about the nature of the threat, calling it only an “electronic threat” that came in the form of a “message”.

“They are taking no risks here”, Martinez said.

Police officials said the email mentioned assault rifles, machine pistols and implied the use of explosives. “I, as superintendent, am not going take a chance with the students”, he said.

Zipperman also stressed that the unprecedented decision to close all public schools was an extreme “precautionary” measure taken in view of the recent terror attack in San Bernardino.

“The school district safeguards three quarters of a million lives every day”. And when it comes to children, keeping them as safe as possible after too many school shootings is paramount. But there were many schools. Avants said, “We know that the steps we’ve taken have positioned us even so much better than we were even ten years ago to step in and intervene and protect our kids and make the right choices”. The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity.

“This is a rare threat – we get threats all the time.”

“I’m not going to be a Tuesday morning quarterback”, he said.