TUESDAY: Authorities in Los Angeles continue to investigate threats of violence that led officials to close public schools in the city on Tuesday and keep some 650,000 students home.
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LOS ANGELES (Sinclair Broadcast Group) – The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was shut down Tuesday after it received an “unspecified threat”, police said.
An email threat to schools in both Los Angeles and New York City that prompted the decision turned out to be a likely hoax, ABC News reported.
A gate to Birmingham Community Charter High School is locked with a sign stating that school is closed, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Van Nuys, Calif. All schools in the vast Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, have been ordered closed due to an electronic threat Tuesday.
Beck said extra patrol officers would be deployed at city schools on Wednesday in part to manage jitters following the unprecedented closure.
After consultation with state and federal law enforcement, it was deemed “less than credible”, it said. NY officials dismissed the threat as a hoax.
In Los Angeles, the person who sent the email claimed to have 32 jihadist friends that would attack the district’s schools with bombs, nerve gas and rifles, according to Los Angeles Representative Brad Sherman.
Tiffany Miles, a parent of an LAUSD student, said the district’s reaction was appropriate, but also said she didn’t receive a robocall form the district until 10:50 a.m. on Tuesday.
He got the support of the Los Angeles mayor and police chief, and from many parents in the L.A. district.
“I think it’s important to take this precaution based on what has happened recently and what has happened in the past”, he said, speaking less than two weeks after a US citizen of Pakistani background and his Pakistani wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino in the deadliest terror strike on U.S soil since 9/11.
On Tuesday every public school in the Los Angeles Unified School District was shut down thanks to an emailed bomb threat.
Bureau officials in Houston told the Chronicle late Wednesday they were unaware of any threats to campuses in the district.
Police Chief Beck said it was “irresponsible” to criticise the decision in the aftermath of the Dec 2 attack in San Bernardino.
According to Jason Spencer, HISD chief of staff, the district spoke with superintendents in Dallas and Miami, who said they received similar, possibly the same, email threats. They said that they received the same threat but opted to stay on with their lives after calling the email message as a hoax.
“Allah” was not spelled with a capital “A”.
“I know the kids are anxious”, she said.
The common area might be in districts nationwide being able to communicate any threats with each other.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the emails to both LA and NY officials “Were the exact same with the exception of putting in the cities’ names and changing the number of people who were supposed to be participating in it”.
“A threatening e-mail… sent from overseas, and 900 schools are closed”.
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“I was supposed to give an essay in class today, and finals are Friday”, Williams said.
