America’s second-largest public school system has shut down, and more than 640,000 students sent home, after an emailed “threat” was made against campuses across Los Angeles.
L.A. schools superintendent Ramon Cortines ordered the shutdown on Tuesday morning, local time, saying that police had alerted him to an emailed bomb threat made to “many schools” in the district.
The emailed threat allegedly came from a student who claimed to have been bullied within the school system, and made references to backpacks and other packages containing explosives.
Soon after the Los Angeles school system shut down, officials in New York received similar threats, but these were immediately dismissed as a hoax, and schools in the area remained open.
New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton openly mocked the threats, saying that they mirrored the plot of recent Homeland episodes, and that the sender might be “a fan.”
Cortines was criticised by some for making a rash decision in closing L.A. schools, but defended his actions, saying:
“I could not take the chance as it relates to one student or our staff that serve our students.”
Story: The Atlantic
