School districts in both Houston and Miami reportedly received threats Wednesday similar to those against NY and Los Angeles schools earlier this week.
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Three thousand miles away, the Los Angeles Unified School District closed over 900 schools, affecting more than 600,000 students over what Bratton said was “almost exactly the same” email.
A message sent to school officials in NY said 139 attackers would launch an assault with guns and bombs and all die in the name of Allah.
LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines echoed the point about the broad nature of the threat affecting the decision.
School buses rolled and parents dropped off children at campuses in the second-largest US school district. Tony Hwang said Tuesday that he intends to reintroduce a bill that would that would beef up the state’s threatening laws, making them more serious felonies. It was estimated that a total of 640,000 students across Los Angeles were affected by the shutdown.
“Undoubtedly, there were some costs to the city, and it’s really impossible to know the costs right now”, Councilman Paul Krekorian’s spokesman Ian Thompson told TIME.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes). Los Angeles School Police officer Alex Camarillo, left, welcomes area students back to school at the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center in Los Angeles Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015. LAPD spokeswoman Liliana Preciado said Wednesday those numbers from the department were not yet available.
Bratton called the closure in Los Angeles a “significant overreaction”.
“I think given the information that both had when they had it, they made choices that are entirely defensible”, he said.
District spokeswoman Shannon Haber said the threat was sent by email to a school board member and was believed to have come from an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany.
The threats came in simultaneously to NY and LA school officials at about 1:20 a.m. EST Tuesday, or about 10:20 p.m. Monday in Los Angeles.
Parents react to the closure of LAUSD schools on Tuesday following a bomb threat later determined to be a hoax.
Bratton, who previously served as Los Angeles police chief from 2002 to 2009, said the person behind the threat may have been inspired by the hit television series “Homeland”.
Officials said that when the Los Angeles schools reopen, there will be extra law enforcement patrols, and that officers who normally wear civilian clothes will be in uniform to help reduce children’s anxiety.
“It’s disappointing”, said Trinity Williams, a high school student who dropped off her younger sister at elementary school, only to find it was closed. The threat was later dismissed as a hoax. Authorities in NY reported receiving the same “generic” email and decided there was no danger to schoolchildren.
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“As we were kids growing up – I’m 51 – we always had the notion that it was a childish prank”, said Hwang, a Republican.
