A former chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism says threatening emails sent to school officials in Los Angeles and NY contained important differences.
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Yesterday, an email containing a terrorist threat prompted the Los Angeles school district to close all of its schools. Students are heading back to class a day after an emailed threat triggered a shutdown of the vast Los Angeles Unified School District.
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.
Los Angeles is 60 miles from San Bernardino, site of the terror attack that left 14 dead two weeks ago.
The threat on LAUSD schools was little more than an unexpected day off. He said he spent it reading “Catcher in the Rye”.
Authorities in NY reported receiving the same “generic” 360-word email and decided there was no danger to schoolchildren. Law enforcement officials now say that threat, like a similar one made in NY, was not credible. He added: “It was so outlandish”.
LAUSD serves more than 640,000 students throughout the Los Angeles area and in multiple nearby cities, according to its website.
But the city’s district leaders and police strongly objected to criticism of their decision.
“The email, which focused nearly entirely on Los Angeles, referred to San Diego in passing, along with other Southern California cities”, said Matt Awbrey, spokesman for Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s office. The district is home to about 200 charter schools that were also affected, along with dozens of educational centers.
“We can not allow ourselves to raise levels of fear,”New York Police Commissioner William J. Brattontold the media.”This is not a credible threat and not one that requires any action”.
The sudden, complete closure disrupted the routines of many Los Angeles families.
Each email claims bombs have been hidden in lockers at several schools and that the supposed attack would also involve “nerve gas agents” and a follow-on armed attack with specific weapons.
Thompson said the bulk of expenses from the closures likely came from the Los Angeles Police Department in overtime costs and traffic safety operations. “It would be great if we had known that NY got the email the same time we did”, Beck said.
L.A. officials, however, did not learn of NYC’s threats until after announcing school closings, according to the L.A. Times.
“Based on past circumstance, I could not take the chance”, Los Angeles School Superintendent Ramon Cortines told a news conference early in the day. The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity.
The mother lingered for a few minutes at the chain-link fence as her daughter disappeared from view.
Kim Jones, a teacher at King Middle School in Silver Lake, said she took that approach with her 11- and 12-year-old sixth graders. “Who knows what it does psychologically to kids?”
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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. “Is this going to cause her some kind of trauma so that she’s not going to feel safe at school?”
