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[h=4]Los Angeles public schools closed due to 'credible' threat[/h]LOS ANGELES —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Public schools across the city and nearby communities<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were shut down<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Tuesday due to a "credible<span style="color: Red;">*</span>threat,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and police sweeps of every school were underway.
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All schools in the vast Los Angeles Unified School District have been ordered closed due to a threat. (Dec. 15) AP
Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles on Oct. 10.(Photo: Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Public schools across the city and nearby communities<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were shut down<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Tuesday due to a "credible<span style="color: Red;">*</span>threat,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and police sweeps of every school were underway.
Supt. Ramon Cortines said he was told about a threat "to not one school, but to many schools in this school district."<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He said the threat involved backpacks and other packages, but provided few details. He said he wanted every school searched by day's end so that schools could reopen Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest in the nation and enrolls more than 640,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, according to its website. More than 900 schools and 187 public charter schools are in the district, covering 720 square miles.
Also Tuesday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said a similar threat was made there, but schools were not closed. He<span style="color: Red;">*</span>dismissed the threat in New York<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as "nothing credible," adding that the language used was "outlandish." Police Commissioner William Bratton suggested<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said the source of the threat may have been an avid fan of the television series Homeland.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Bratton said the threats were made to "promote fear," and that the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>NYPD was investigating along with the FBI,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a joint terrorism task force and Los Angeles police.
In Los Angeles, some students already had gone to school when the decision was made to close them. Authorities said officials at individual schools would stay with students until their parents could pick them up.
"We need the cooperation of all of Los Angeles today," said school board president Steve Zimmer.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"We need families and neighbors to work together with our schools and with our employees to make sure our kids are safe throughout the day."
Schools police Chief Steven Zipperman<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said an electronic threat "mentioned the safety of all of our schools."
Jorge Villegas, an assistant chief for Los Angeles police, said officers and the FBI were trying to determine if the threat had "validity."
"Nothing is more important than the safety of our kids," he said.
Cortines said the district gets threats "all the time" but that recent events in San Bernardino and elsewhere elevated this threat.
"I, as superintendent, am not going to take the chance with the life of a student," he said. Sometimes that results in lockdowns and other protocols at individual schools, he said.
"What we are doing today is not different from what we always due except we are doing it in a mass way," Cortines said.
At Kenwood Elementary School in the Westchester section of Los Angeles, stunned parents were heading home with their children. Some said they appreciated the district's decision to take no chances with the safety of their children. Some parents said they should have been sent emails explaining what happened.
"It's kind of weird. We expect school every day," said Dunia Najarro, who had planned on dropping<span style="color: Red;">*</span>off her five-year-old son Ivan. "For me, he needs to be learning."
Joumana Saba, who had brought her sons, ages nine and eight, to Kentwood said she appreciated the district's decision.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>She said that these kinds of situations sometimes develop quickly, leaving little opportunity to notify parents in advance.
"I understood it is out of an abundance of caution," Saba said. "There is no way of knowing."
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