All Los Angeles Unified School District campuses were closed Tuesday morning after a “credible” bomb threat was called in to a school board member.
According to the Los Angeles School Police, the threat was electronic in form and was made to numerous but unspecified campuses involving backpacks and packages.
Authorities said they will search all of the more than 900 LAUSD schools. The LAUSD is the largest public school system in California and the second-largest in the nation. Private schools have remained open.
The Los Angeles Police Department and FBI are also assisting with the threat investigation.
“I think it’s important to take this precaution based on what has happened recently and what has happened in the past,” LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said.
Cortines called it “a rare threat” that prompted the decision to close all campuses.
Students who had already arrived at on campus will be supervised until they can be picked up by a parent or guardian with proper identification, LAUSD said in a statement.
Officials said there is no other known threat to the L.A. County region.
New York City officials said they also received the same threat as the one in Los Angeles, but concluded it was a hoax.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was “absolutely convinced” there was no danger to New York schools or schoolchildren, according to the Associated Press.
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said a school superintendent received a threatening email Tuesday morning from someone claiming to be a jihadist, but errors made it obvious the person was a prankster.
Ramon Tovar, an English teacher at Van Nuys High School, said he found out what was happening from a student who messaged him through a teaching app saying there was a bomb threat and to turn on the news. He verified it with the school’s administrative staff, who told him to stay home. He didn’t hear directly from the school’s principal until later in the morning.
“It was really through the news and word of mouth amongst us faculty members,” Tovar told the Washington Examiner.
He said the initial student who messaged him seemed a little scared, but other students who have contacted him have mostly asked about when school will reopen.
Madeleine Morgenstern contributed to this report.
