It’s all over the news right now, that the Los Angeles Unified School district has completely shut down its schools and are telling parents that if they haven’t brought their children to school, not to do so.
All Los Angeles Unified School District schools closed following bomb threat, police say – @latimes https://t.co/EK6y5mcL13
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) December 15, 2015
LAUSD totally shut down today. Reports of a "terror threat." That's 600k students told to stay home.
— Elisha (@ElishaKrauss) December 15, 2015
640,000 American schoolchildren are out of school bc of a security threat. Heartbreaking.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) December 15, 2015
Right now school officials and police say they are vetting this credible security threat but won’t say any more about the threat or where it might have come from. They have said the threat was communicated electronically and is aimed at students at multiple schools, which is why they’ve decided to close over 900 campuses.
I’ll have more on this as it becomes available.
UPDATE: Here’s more from the LA Times:
Officials have closed all Los Angeles Unified School District campuses Tuesday morning after a bomb threat was called in to board member, roiling the nation’s second-largest school district.
Authorities said they plan a search operation of all LAUSD schools after an “unspecified threat was received.”
The move comes less than two weeks after two shooters killed 14 people in San Bernardino in what was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
It is unclear when the threat was made and to which school board member, but the situation prompted the LAUSD to close all schools effective immediately, according to the Los Angeles school police.
Students and staff were directed to stay away from all campuses.
I should mention that all 900 or so campuses have to be searched. This is a tremendous undertaking.
UPDATE: Looks like we have more information the threat:
law enforcement says the threat that closed schools in the LAUSD was emailed to a school board member and appeared to come from overseas.
— Phillip Palmer (@abc7phillip) December 15, 2015
LAUSD UPDATE: ABC News confirms email threat came from outside the country; named specific schools, according to law enforcement briefed.
— Marc Cota-Robles (@abc7marccr) December 15, 2015
#BREAKINGNEWS Last IP address linked to email threat came from Frankfurt, Germany – sent to board member. #LAUSD
— Marc Cota-Robles (@abc7marccr) December 15, 2015
Also New York City got the same threat but deemed it not credible:
#BREAKING UPDATE: Bratton says #NYC received threat similar to LA schools but email is deemed "not credible" https://t.co/Y0mx1BvhVG
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) December 15, 2015
The NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City school officials received the same anonymous threat that prompted Los Angeles to shut down its public schools Tuesday, but authorities said they determined the email to be “not credible” and were investigating it as a hoax.
De Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said several other districts nationwide also received a generic email threat Tuesday, but investigators determined that students weren’t in any real danger.
Bratton said that officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District…overreacted by canceling classes. He said that’s what whoever made the threat wanted.