Here’s a running roundup of some of the latest breaking news on the Los Angeles Unified School district massive shutdown:
— LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says the threat against LAUSD schools came in “very late last night” and was sent to various members of the school board. He says local authorities immediately notified the FBI. He is defending the decision to close the schools, saying, “It is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results the decider could never have known.”
— The Petersen Automotive Museum is offering free admission for LAUSD students today due to the school closure. DiscoveryCube Los Angeles is also offering students free admission.
— The Dodgers and Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation children’s holiday party that had been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon is being postponed due to the LAUSD school closures. The Dodgers say they are working to reschedule the event, which was to have begun at 4 p.m. at Estrada Courts, an affordable housing complex.
— Riverside police say they are aware of the threat that caused the Los Angeles Unified School District to close all of its roughly 900 campuses this morning, and stress that there have been no threats to Riverside Unified schools.
— The Los Angeles Airport Police Department says it is monitoring the situation with the Los Angeles Unified School District and is stressing that there are “no specific or credible threats to LAX, Ontario or Van Nuys airports.”
— West Hollywood officials say sheriff’s officials have searched all LAUSD schools in that city and found nothing suspicious.
— Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, says he has reviewed the email sent to an LAUSD board members that led to the closure of schools today, and says the author “claims to be an extremist Muslim who has teamed up with local jihadists.”
“We do not know whether these claims are true or a lie. We do not know whether this email is from a devout Muslim who supports jihadists or perhaps a non-Muslim with a different agenda. The email makes relatively specific and wide-ranging threats to Los Angeles schools. We do not know whether some or all of the threats are truthful.”
— California State University campuses are open and operating normally, despite the threat that has led to the closure of LAUSD schools.
— Mayor Eric Garcetti is calling on LAUSD parents to “remain calm” in light of today’s LAUSD school closure. “This decision has been made by the school district in an abundance of caution. As mayor, we have shared our support and our intelligence and LAPD is working in collaboration with LAUSD School Police to fully investigate this threat. We have also asked our Emergency Operations Center to be activated and we have arranged for MTA to help by providing free bus rides to all LAUSD students. We will continue to monitor this situation. Nothing is more important to me than the safety of our families.”
— Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they are on scene at the LAUSD’s operations center to assist with the investigation into the threat that has forced the closure of school campuses.
— According to media reports out of New York, that city’s school district received the same email threat that prompted the closure of LAUSD schools, but New York officials did not deem the threat to be credible, and campuses there are remaining open. Former LAPD Chief William Bratton, now the police commissioner in New York, said the LAUSD may have overreacted by canceling classes.
— City News Service