BringThePain834
Getting Noticed By Management
All Los Angeles Unified School District campuses were closed Tuesday and will remain closed until further notice. LAUSD received a "credible" threat to all schools, according to district officials and police.
The threat against the nation's second largest school district was sent via email to a school board member Monday evening and was traced back to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany, according to LAUSD spokeswoman Ellen Morgan.
Officials announced the district-wide closure shortly before 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Police Department was notified about a "specific" threat late Monday night that had been sent to a number of school board members, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck said during a mid-morning news conference.
The implied threat was "explosive devices," "assault rifles" and "machine pistols," according to Beck.
"The school district safeguards three quarters of a million lives every day. When they make a decision, they have to take into account the safety of the children of Los Angeles," Beck said, responding to criticism about the decision to close schools.
"These are tough times," Beck said. "These communities — our community, Southern California — has been through a lot in recent weeks. Should we risk putting our children through the same?"
Mayor Eric Garcetti, speaking at the same news conference as the police chief, added that the message included a number of forms of violence and weapons, and stated that "things were already in place to bring that violence about."
Although the IP address was in Germany, the origin of the threat was still unknown, according to the police chief. He said he believed the threat came from much closer than Europe.
"We are still vetting the threat," Beck stated, adding that the LAPD has not yet determined whether the threat is credible or not. School officials, however, have referred to it as "credible."
"We are still vetting the threat," Beck stated, adding that the LAPD has not yet determined whether the threat is credible or not. School officials, however, have referred to it as "credible."
Amid the ongoing investigation, the city's Emergency Operation Center has been activated at its lowest level, the mayor said.
A similar threat was made against New York City's school system on the same day, according to New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. He described the email that the superintendent of his city's school system received as "almost exactly the same" as the one LAUSD officials were sent.
New York police believe the threat in their city to be a “hoax," said Bratton, a former LAPD chief.
Earlier, Superintendent Ramon Cortines described the nature of the threat as "unspecified." It was initially characterized as a "terror threat" by another LAUSD official.
Calling the threat "rare," Cortines said the threat was directed to "students at schools." He added it was made to "many schools," but did not identify any by name.
Officials later clarified the threat had been made to all schools.
The superintendent stated that he made the decision to close all campuses after consulting with Los Angeles School Police Department Chief Steven Zipperman and School Board President Steve Zimmer.
Cortines had the full support of Garcetti, who said that while the decision to close the schools was not his to make, "it is mine to support as mayor."
All the schools were being thoroughly searched to ensure the grounds were "safe for children," according to Cortines.
"I've asked the plant managers to walk the school, and if they see anything that is out of order to contact the police," Cortines said.
The Los Angeles Police Department -- which has taken the lead in the investigation -- and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were assisting school police in search operations of all campuses.
A number of police patrol cars and SWAT vehicles were seen in the vicinity of local schools in the hours after LAUSD disclosed the threat, video from Sky5 showed.
School bus service has also been canceled for the day. All LAUSD students with a valid student ID were able to ride Metro services for free Tuesday.
Other districts in Southern California reported receiving no threats to their schools, and were operating their campuses normally. Some charter, private and Catholic schools closed.
Cortines felt it was important to take the precaution "based on what has happened recently, and what has happened in the past," he said, alluding to the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, which was being investigated by the FBI as an "act of terrorism."
The Dec. 2 attack at the Inland Regional Center left 14 people dead and 22 others injured.
Meanwhile, the threat to LAUSD schools was still in the process of being analyzed, according to Zipperman. The FBI has also been notified.
“Whether this pans out as something that could have happened or not … I do not want people to say – because sometimes things don’t result in a shooting, or don’t result in a foiled plot – to not speak up and to not speak out," Garcetti said. “If you see something, say something.”
As law enforcement personnel walked through all the campuses looking for anything suspicious, schools would remain close out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the safety of students, according to the school police chief.
A number of steps would be taken before schools were cleared to reopen, including gathering information obtained by LAPD and the Sheriff's Department from the campus sweeps, Zipperman stated.
The superintendent and school board members would then be briefed, and would make a final determination based on the collected evidence on whether classes would be in session on Wednesday.
"We will not do that until we are completely satisfied that we have taken every measure possible to ensure the safety of our students," Zipperman said at the news conference.
In the meantime, parents and guardians were urged in the morning hours to keep their kids home from school until further notice.
Anyone who had already dropped their child off was asked to pick them up. Proper ID will be required and checked upon picking students up, school officials said.
LAUSD serves more than 640,000 students throughout the Los Angeles area and in multiple nearby cities, according to its website. The district is composed of a total of 1,087 schools. 900 public and 187 public charter schools.
My god, there's some real crazy shit going on in our world today. I am hoping that everyone that this concerns is safe and that these schools don't stay closed for too long as I'm sure that most high schools have finals to do this week.
Last thing that we need in this world is to hear about more tragedies, whether it be attacks, shootings, or bombings, especially at this time of year.
