“The schools will be closed today. Teachers and staff do not report to school. This info will be updated.”
That was a phone message playing on a Los Angeles Unified School District hotline Tuesday morning following a “credible” bomb threat that closed all school sites and grounded all school buses. While it apprarently turned out to be a hoax, the threat wreaked much havoc across the county.
While the threat was reportedly made Monday evening, a district spokeswoman told STN that a phone notification system and message was sent to all parents and guardians Tuesday morning notifying them of school closures and no bus service. But many of the district’s 700,000 students were already at school or on the way there, and the closure sent parents scrambling for ways to get their students home safely, especially without school buses.
L.A.’s Metro transit service provided free fares till noon local time for anyLAUSD students with valid IDs who were stranded at school or on their way to school when they learned of the district-wide closure.
However, a 17-year-old boy was struck and killed by a truck as he apparently walked away from his charter high school after the closures were announced.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the threat was made via email to a school board member for “numerous but unspecified campuses.” The email has reportedly been traced back to an IP address in Germany.
The Times quoted LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines as saying, “We get threats all the time. This was a rare threat.”
The district and entire Southland have been on high alert following the San Bernardino mass killing and gun battle with police two weeks ago.
