Los Angeles officials bristle at criticism of school closures

Los Angeles officials on Tuesday defended their decision to close the nation’s second-largest school district after being accused of overreacting to a threat.

In a mid-day press conference, multiple city officials bristled at the suggestion that they had fallen for a hoax when responding to an emailed bomb threat targeting multiple schools.

{mosads}“Everybody has to make decisions in life,” police chief Charlie Beck said. “Some people —  the superintendent in this case — had to make a decision that affects everybody in this city’s children and another 100,000 of his city’s own employees.” 

Questioning the decision is “irresponsible,” Beck added.

In multiple press conference, city officials indicated that their rush to close schools may have been inspired by this month’s shooting in nearby San Bernardino, where 14 people were killed by a couple that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  

“Southern California has been through a lot in recent weeks. Should we risk putting our children through the same?” Beck said. 

The decision was made in party because of ‘The circumstances in the neighboring San Bernardino [and] I think what has happened in the nation, I think what happened internationally,” LA District Superintendent Ramon Cortines said earlier on Tuesday morning.

“I, as superintendent, am not going to take the chance with the life of a student.” 

The defensive posture came hours after the rare decision was made to close the district’s schools and keep all of its 640,000 students home.

New York City officials claimed to have received the same anonymous threat, but dismissed it as not serious.

“It’s very important not to overreact in situations like this,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

De Blasio described the email threat as “so generic, so outlandish and posed to numerous school districts simultaneously” that officials in New York did not take it seriously.

“I think the initiator, the instigator of the threat may be a ‘Homeland’ fan, basically watching ‘Homeland’ episodes that it mirrors a lot of recent episodes on ‘Homeland,'” added New York Police Commissioner William Bratton, who said he thought officials in L.A. acted hastily. Bratton previously served as chief of police for Los Angeles. 

Tuesday’s decision was made by Cortines after members of the school board received a specific threat late on Monday night.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure that children are safe,” Cortines said at a press conference in the early afternoon. “But that also students and parents understand that the precautions we are taking are done in a calming way, are done in a way that is in the best interest of everybody in this particular city.” 

Beck, the police chief, declined to respond to the criticism from New York, saying the skepticism was “between me and Bill,” referring to Bratton.

Details of the threat remain unclear, but L.A. officials said that it involved promised use of explosive devices and assault rifles across multiple area schools. 

“It threatened violence to our students and to our campuses, and implied that that could come in a number of forms of violence, with weapons, and that things were already in place to bring that violence about,” L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said. 

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who represents part of Los Angeles, said on CNN on Tuesday that the threat came from someone claiming to be “an extremist Muslim jihadist” acting with 32 accomplices and a nerve agent.

“There are reasons to doubt that,” he added, noting that the message includes “a pornographic reference to a body part” that would be out of place coming from a dedicated Islamic extremist.  

“This could be sent by an extremist jihadist. But it could also be sent by someone with a different agenda,” Sherman said. “At least some of the details of the threat lack credibility.” 

School facilities were in the process of being searched throughout the day on Tuesday, to certify that there was no threat.

The FBI has been notified and is assisting the L.A. school district, a spokeswoman said.