Los Angeles Times.
The Culver City Police Dept. said late this morning it has been closely monitoring the terror threat that closed down all LAUSD schools in the nation’s second largest school district.
This threat is specific to LAUSD, and it has no direct impact on Culver City schools, authorities said.
“We have coordinated with the Culver City Unified School District, and they have made the decision to maintain normal operations at all Culver City schools with increased vigilance from staff,” said a police spokesperson.
“Additionally, we have deployed extra uniformed personnel in the field for extra patrols around all the schools.
“We will be sharing information as it becomes available.”
An email threat sent to several Los Angeles Unified School District School Board members that prompted a closure of all Los Angeles Unified schools mentioned explosive devices, assault rifles and pistols. It was traced to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany, according to law enforcement sources.
All campuses were closed this morning after receiving what officials have called a “credible threat” of violence involving backpacks and packages left at campuses. Still, one law enforcement source familiar with the evidence said there was no sign that “this individual is actually capable of carrying out the threat.”
Law enforcement sources said that the person who made the threats could have masked their location and that the origin is believed to be much closer than Germany.
District officials have been looking into the threat since at least 10 p.m. Monday, according to a school police source. The FBI and LAPD are assisting the investigation.
Authorities said they plan to search all of LAUSD’s more than 900 schools, including charter schools and special education centers. The nation’s second-largest school district, LAUSD has more than 700,000 students.
“Somebody has sent information that leads us to pause,” Supt. Ramon Cortines said.
“What we are doing today is no different than what we normally do, except that we are doing it in a mass way,” he added.
Shortly after the district announced the closure, a 17-year-old male student was struck and killed by a city service truck while crossing a Highland Park street. The boy was near Avenue 60 and Figueroa Street at 7:30 when he was hit, Los Angeles Police Officer Jane Kim said.
New York authorities were also responding to a threat made to city schools, but said it was not credible and that they were concerned about overreacting.
“These threats are made to promote fear…we can not allow us to raise the levels of fear,” New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton tweeted.
He added that the agency was working closely with the FBI and the LAPD.
The massive closure across the Los Angeles region 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 Sept. 11, 2001.
Officials said the threat was aimed at all L.A. Unified schools.
LAPD Asst. Chief Jorge Villegas said schools were closed “in an abundance of caution.”
“Nothing is [more] important to us than the safety of our kids,” he said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti cautioned the public about jumping to conclusions. “Decisions need to be made in a matter of minutes,” he said. “We will continue to hope that this is nothing and that our children will be back in school tomorrow.”
Supt. Cortines said that while “we get threats all the time, this was a rare threat.”
Students who already had arrived at school will be supervised until parents can pick them up, officials said. LAUSD instructed parents and guardians to bring identification with them. Metro announced that students with a valid student ID can ride buses and trains for free until noon.
Brian Levin, a terror expert at Cal State San Bernardino, said the closure was unprecedented and could embolden others to make future threats.
“In today’s environment it makes sense to err on the side of safety, even though they almost always are hoaxes,” he said.
As families scrambled to reroute their days, many students could be found outside in their neighborhoods.
Ana Rodriguez, a sixth-grader at Sunrise Elementary School in Boyle Heights, walked with her older sister to pick up coffee and bread for an unexpected breakfast at home.
The 11-year-old worried about her teachers and was nervous at the thought of returning to school the next day.
“I’m scared that a bomb could explode at my school,” she said. Miguel Real, 13, rode his skateboard in Highland Park, having just been sent home from Burbank Middle School. He was on his way to tell the news to his mother who had known nothing about classes being canceled. “She’s going to freak,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Zayda Hernandez had been turned away from Mayberry Elementary in Echo Park. Her 6-year-old son, Matthew Alvarez, sat in the back seat of her car, bundled up in a coat and SpongeBob stocking cap.
Matthew hasn’t been feeling well lately, but Hernandez has been urging him to just make it through the last few days of school before winter break.
She pulled up to see paper signs attached to the closed chain-link fence outside the school: “No school today.” “Hoy no hay escuela.”
She shook her head. She had to go to work.
But her son, a kindergartener, grinned.
LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer urged school employees to stay home.
“I want to be very clear: We need cooperation of the whole of Los Angeles today,” Mr. Zimmer said, asking employers to show patience for parents looking to find childcare.
Adjacent school districts across the county, including South Pasadena Unified and Long Beach Unified, sent notices to parents about the threat to LAUSD that said they were not impacted and would remain open. Other private daycares and preschools decided to follow LAUSD’s lead and shut down for the day.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said his agency reviewed the threat and then contacted the FBI. He called any criticism of the school closures “irreponsible” at this point.
“Southern California has been through a lot in the past few weeks,” he said. “Should we put our children through the same thing?”
