N.Y., Los Angeles schools threatened
Officials believe similar threats likely were a hoax.
LOS ANGELES — After the Los Angeles public schools were shut down Tuesday in response to threats of a bomb and poison gas attack, officials determined that the threats were probably a hoax, but not before the lives of millions of Angelenos — students, parents, teachers and school staff members — were thrown into disarray.
The threat came in an email sent to Los Angeles school board members, said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beckt. New York City officials said they received a similar threat to schools on Tuesday, but concluded it was a hoax and did not close schools.
Law enforcement and schools officials said the emails originated in Frankfurt, or were routed through there, and appeared to have come from the same sender. The FBI was working with local law enforcement agencies investigating the threats.
After receiving an intelligence briefing, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Los Angeles-area Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that “the preliminary assessment is that it was a hoax or something designed to disrupt school districts in large cities.”
The Los Angeles threat was explicitly “to students at schools,” said Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the district, the nation’s second-largest, adding that “some of the details talked about backpacks, other packages.”
“It was not to one school, two schools or three schools — it was many schools, not specifically identified,” Cortines said at a news conference. “I am not taking the chance of bringing children anyplace, into any part of the building, until I know it is safe.”
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents parts of Los Angeles, said the writer of the email claimed that “he has 32 jihadist friends” ready to attack the schools using bombs, nerve gas and rifles. The writer identified himself as a practicing Muslim who had attended a Los Angeles high school and had been bullied while he was there, according to Sherman, who said he had been given a copy of the email by one of the school board members.
Sherman said elements of the message did not appear credible, including the number of potential attackers and the claim that they had access to nerve gas. It was signed with a male Arabic-appearing name, he said, but added: “The word Allah appears several times in the email, but once it’s not capitalized. A devout Muslim or an extremist Muslim would probably be more careful about typing the world Allah.”
The threat to New York schools was sent around 5 a.m. Tuesday, said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The official said that the emails appeared to have also been routed through Germany and to have come from the same person — who in this case said he had 138 jihadist friends who would assist him.
New York police spokesman Stephen Davis said officials “determined that the emails were the exact same wording with the exception of putting in the cities’ names and changing the number of people who were supposed to be participating in” the threatened attack. “Other than that, it was a cut-and-paste job.”
Cortines and other Los Angeles officials said the schools here would remain closed until the police and school administrators had searched every building to make sure the campuses were safe. But the logistical task involved is immense, as is the potential for chaos: The Los Angeles Unified School District has more than 640,000 students enrolled in 900 schools and 187 public charter schools, sprawling across more than 720 square miles.
The closings came as the region remained on edge after the terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif., less than two weeks ago that left 14 people dead and 22 wounded. Over the last two weeks, there have been a number of bomb threats. But the authorities treated this one differently.
“This is a rare threat,” Cortines said. “We get threats all the time.”