Los Angeles public schools to reopen after hoax terror threat
|
Version 0 of 1. Authorities in Los Angeles have ordered schools to reopen on Wednesday after concluding that a threat of violence which triggered mass school closures was not credible. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police inspected more than 1,500 sites on Tuesday and deemed them safe, prompting relief but also renewed scrutiny of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s decision to send more than 700,000 children home earlier that day. Related: Los Angeles defends decision to close public schools over threat School officials did so initially citing a “credible threat” of violence purportedly involving explosive devices, assault rifles, backpacks and packages, raising fears of a fresh atrocity in California weeks after the San Bernardino massacre. However, their counterparts in New York who received a similar threat dismissed it as a hoax, kept schools open and accused LA of overreacting. On Tuesday evening, after an unprecedented scramble by staff, parents and law enforcement agencies across the city, LA officials concluded the threat was not credible after all but stood by their decision to close the schools. “Some have used words that I think are probably inappropriate like hoax and other things,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Whether it’s criminal mischief, whether it’s somebody testing vulnerabilities of multiple cities, we still do not know enough to say definitively. What we do know is that it will be safe for our children to return to school tomorrow.” The one-day closure could technically cost the school district $29 million in per-pupil funding, according to one estimate. The abrupt closures initially triggered alarm and anxiety but within hours local politicians dismissed the threat. “The preliminary assessment is that it was a hoax or something designed to disrupt school districts in large cities,” Adam Schiff, a US congressman who represents a part of LA county and sits on the House intelligence committee, said in a statement. Another local congressman, Brad Sherman, a senior member of the House foreign affairs committee, said the author of the emailed threat claimed to be a devout Muslim with 32 “jihadist friends”, all planning to attack schools with bombs, nerve gas and rifles. The name was Arabic and the message cited Allah several times, but not always capitalised, undermining its credibility, said Sherman. “The text of the email does not demonstrate that the author has studied Islam or has any particular understanding of Islam,” he added. The only thing known, Sherman said, was that the email was “sent by an evil person”. New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, was blunter: “There was nothing credible about the threat. It was so generic, so outlandish and posed to numerous school systems simultaneously.” New York’s police chief, Bill Bratton said the threat appeared to mirror recent episodes of the television drama Homeland. “It is not something that we are concerned with. What we would be concerned with is overreacting to it.” Bratton, who used to be LA’s police chief, said LA’s response could fuel anxiety and copycat threats. Officials in LA, an hour’s drive from San Bernardino, which suffered a recent terror attack, defended the shutdowns as a reasonable precaution. However Garcetti and Charlie Beck, the police chief, made clear that the decision was taken by Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the LA unified school district. Cortines said that the threat was “not to one school, two school or three schools” but to “many schools” and “at school students” generally. Law enforcement officials reportedly traced the threat to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany, but this did not mean it was the source. The closures prompted widespread disruption but also a community spirit, said Tanya Anton, who runs the school advice blog gomamaguide.com. “Everybody has been helping each other, parents opening their homes, collecting each others’ kids.” She praised museums and the city metro for allowing in children for free. Wealthy parents with cars, radios, smartphones and active social media accounts tended to hear the news before poorer parents, said Anton. “For working parents it’s been a huge disruption.” As parents and students milled outside schools across the city the disruption may have contributed to a tragedy: a city service truck struck and killed a 17-year-old student crossing a street in Highland Park, near a charter high school. Local television stations initially gave blanket coverage to the closures, reflecting nervousness in the wake of the 2 December attacks which left 14 dead in San Bernardino, but by late morning some viewers complained, calling it excessive. Some commentators on social media called the closures a farce. Veronica Manzano, who lives near the Del Amo elementary school in Carson was still in bed when a Del Amo school staff member knocked on her door at about 7am to notify her of the closures. “It was scary,” said Manzano. “First of all it was like a desperate knock. Then when I saw her [the staff member’s] reaction you could tell something wasn’t right. So that’s when she told me. It was nerve-racking – oh my goodness.” Both Manzano and her husband decided to stay home with their three children because of the threat. Manzano recognized that the district’s decision likely left many working parents in a lurch, but said she supported the decision to close the schools. “My children come before anything and I’m actually very happy with the call that they’ve made. I’d rather be safe than later on regret it and say we wish they would have taken other precautions. So I’m 100% supporting their decision.” Given their proximity to the school she and her husband were wondering whether to evacuate. “That’s the decision we’re taking right now, whether we stay or go away for the day,” said Manzano. One of her sons piped up with a suggestion: “Go to Disneyland.” |