Los Angeles schools closed due to threat

[katydid23]

I haven't followed much about the San Bernardino case in recent days, but wasn't it suggested that the shooters were intending attacks at other locations? They had tons of ammunition, bomb-making materials, etc. Who knows? Maybe they were considering shootings and/or explosives in school buildings. :moo:

Indeed. The male shooter inspected schools for his job. And he had pictures of a few local schools in his home. He inspected the kitchens of the schools and the admins had their schools checked for bombs and poisons after they found out he was the terrorist in SB.

So I do think the LA school Superintendent took that info into account when he made his decision. As well he should have.

 

[katydid23]

So I am at a mall at the Northern edge of LA. It is crammed full of children. But they all seem very happy and thrilled to be out of school today. I had to go to Toysrus and it was chock full of happy kids today. So maybe it was a good thing. Kids got a 'snowday' and are taking a break and some of their parents got a sudden day off too. Sometimes things work out for the best in the end.

 

[cady]

So I am at a mall at the Northern edge of LA. It is crammed full of children. But they all seem very happy and thrilled to be out of school today. I had to go to Toysrus and it was chock full of happy kids today. So maybe it was a good thing. Kids got a 'snowday' and are taking a break and some of their parents got a sudden day off too. Sometimes things work out for the best in the end.

Congrats on your new grandchild! I bet you had fun shopping..... Forgot to tell you that a while ago. Cady

 

[katydid23]

Congrats on your new grandchild! I bet you had fun shopping..... Forgot to tell you that a while ago. Cady

Haha...thanks. Yes, I had a blast shopping. She loves picture books and 'big bright toys that move'---but buying her little precious clothes is my favorite part. She is so adorable. :heartbeat: :baby:

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

So I am at a mall at the Northern edge of LA. It is crammed full of children. But they all seem very happy and thrilled to be out of school today. I had to go to Toysrus and it was chock full of happy kids today. So maybe it was a good thing. Kids got a 'snowday' and are taking a break and some of their parents got a sudden day off too. Sometimes things work out for the best in the end.

Children in L.A. don't often get "snow days", while they're commonplace in Michigan I'm just happy that no violence took place and that students can return to their classrooms tomorrow.

 

[AzPistonsGirl]

ugh, my mom is an LAUSD substitute and I knew this meant no work for her today. =(

 

[Hatfield]

I know officials are trying to be safe but common sense has to apply. First off, the terrorists would likely not send a threat. If they really were going to do something they would likely keep it a secret and just blow something up so right off the bat its probably fake and just trying to scare + "terrorize". Below is what the NY school district is saying for the exact same threat they got.


"New York City officials said the same email was sent to school leaders in their region, but Mayor Bill de Blasio said the note was deemed "so generic, so outlandish" that it would have been "a huge disservice" to shut down the schools.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Stephen P. Davis called it a "cut and paste job" with a few changes, such as the name of the city."

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-all-lausd-schools-closed-threat-20151215-story.html

 

[Hatfield]

Im at the point where if I was flying on a plane and heard a "threat" about a bomb on board, I would tell the pilot to just please ignore it and keep flying to my destination. Anyone trying to call in a threat for a plane bomb is 99.9% false because if they really had a plane bomb on board then surely they would not want to warn anybody about it.

If I was officials of any type of bomb threat like these schools, I would tend to ignore most ALL of them UNLESS it is one of our own security people that have intercepted communication that points to a real action that is supposed to happen. OR some other form of corroboration would be needed.

All these stupid prank overseas threats are ridiculous to waiste tons of money resources on unless there is some sort of independent corroboration from our own intelligence OR somewhere else.

I am shocked that LA school district took the action they did with nothing more than an overseas email or text or whatever it was. The person who made that decision should be fired IMO. I know some may not agree and I know the guy was trying to play it safe but IMO it wasn't even a real threat. So many things pointed to it being fake.

-It was a stinking email.
-Came from overseas
-Hasn't most people received a SPAM email spoofing one thing or another
-NY schools received exact same email threat with just slight differences
-Nothing at all to make it seem even remotely credible.
-0 corroboration from anywhere

If LA has that kind of money to waist by closing all the schools and searching each and every one of them then please don't tell us your state is broke financially. This is the most absurd decision I have heard of in a long time.
ALL signs have pointed to these fake pranks were going to start to become more common. I expected this and I also expected officials to start to wise up to them.

Im very disappointed and flabbergasted at the knee jerk reaction to this non credible spam email threat.

Sorry. End-rant. This really chaps me. LOL What a waist of money.
And what also really makes me mad is it is showing the fools who do this that we are stupid.
Well, not us. Just the LA school official who made the decision. LOL

 

[LaborDayRN]

I'm just glad that no one got hurt and I hope they find the origin of this threat and they're charged.

 

[Montjoy]

I don't think that a school board should be tasked with making this call. I know also, that nobody wants to make this call. But at this point, it would seem that it takes nothing but a cleverly worded and crafted email to shut down a large institution. Being that the case, score one to the terrorists -- or, perhaps in this case, kids who wanted to use the public's fear of terrorists to shut down school. Let's not ignore that, if this is the case, clever teenagers can shut down big institutions because so many people get paralyzed by a threat. I understand diligence, but are we not spending a lot of tax money to evaluate threats already? What does it mean if we don't use them.

Not a good day, even though there were no casualties in the formal sense. There were many people who were casualties of the fear that underlies terrorism.

 

[Bravo]

Given what the State just went thru I cant blame them. Always could be a lone wolf. Which has been our experience here in Canada. Or even a student intending to do planned harm but maximizing on the current tension.

 

[JeannaT]

I'm just glad that no one got hurt and I hope they find the origin of this threat and they're charged.

well apparently it's some prankster in Germany who doesn't even know to capitalize Allah.

And yes, it would be nice to find this guy and charge him in civil court. The cost of shutting down the entire school district of Los Angeles for a day would bankrupt anyone, and charges in civil court require less proof.

 

[i.b.nora]

I can't get all upset over the decision to close the Los Angeles schools today. First of all, it didn't affect me, at all. And, as some are fond of saying, "in an abundance of caution" it seemed like a proper decision, for Los Angeles today. I think the Southland area especially is feeling a litlle on edge at the moment. San Bernardino is not that far away and even Jihadists and mad bombers drive cars. They could be lurking anywhere.

And, had 9/11 happened a couple of weeks ago, NYC would have closed their schools for the day.

Anyhow, I read that Ramon Cortines the school superintendent had officially retired, and Friday of last week was his last work day. So, apparently when the threat was emailed Monday night, they had not yet installed or hired (or whatever) a new head guy. What a way to retire, huh?

For me, there are other things to get riled up about. This is not one of them, and I can totally understand their call. I think the NYC Police Commissioner thinks he still runs the Los Angeles Police Department. (He was Los Angeles Police Chief 2002-2009).

 

[JeannaT]

I was a little dismayed about "their first priority is to keep the kids safe". In my opinion, the first priority is to educate the kids, and closely followed, the second priority is to keep them safe.

I look at the "greatest generation" those kids born in the early 1900's - 1930's - and for those kids, the first priority is NOT to keep them safe, but rather, good luck surviving. Good luck, you're kind of on your own.

And that produced the greatest human generation of all time, IMHO. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So true. Stop cowering. Stop identifying with the saying "if this saves only one life, it was worth it" when discussing huge sweeping losses of freedom. You can't save a life. You can only prolong it.

I'm concerned with our culture, that we cower in fear and put safety as top rung priority over liberty and joy, and achievement.

 

[i.b.nora]

The Email That Shut Down LA Schools Came From An 'Internet Meme Sewer'
It's been traced back to a barebones email server that hosts thousands of accounts.
Ryan Grenoble
News Editor, The Huffington Post
12/15/2015 08:08 pm ET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/email-shut-down-los-angeles-schools_567098b1e4b0648fe30172b5

“The anonymous email that sparked a shutdown of the entire Los Angeles Unified School District today was routed via an email server by the name of ".li," a barebones service that hosts a number of explicit domains.
(To give you an idea of their names, the tech blog Boing Boing aptly described .li as an "internet meme sewer.")

The New York City school district received a similar -- if not the same -- email, and while Mayor Bill de Blasio dismissed it as "generic," "outlandish" and generally not credible, the New York Police Department has nonetheless subpoenaed Vincent Canfield, who manages the web service, to provide information about the related account.”​

More.

 

[katydid23]

I was a little dismayed about "their first priority is to keep the kids safe". In my opinion, the first priority is to educate the kids, and closely followed, the second priority is to keep them safe.

I look at the "greatest generation" those kids born in the early 1900's - 1930's - and for those kids, the first priority is NOT to keep them safe, but rather, good luck surviving. Good luck, you're kind of on your own.

And that produced the greatest human generation of all time, IMHO. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So true. Stop cowering. Stop identifying with the saying "if this saves only one life, it was worth it" when discussing huge sweeping losses of freedom. You can't save a life. You can only prolong it.

I'm concerned with our culture, that we cower in fear and put safety as top rung priority over liberty and joy, and achievement.

I understand your point. However, if you don't keep the kids safe you cannot educate them.

I agree it was an overreaction on the Superintendents part. But I would rather they err on the side of caution. And the terrorist that shot up San Bernardino had pictures of local schools in his apartment, surrounded by homemade pipe bomb parts.

So I think that was what tipped the difference in LA vs NYC.

 

[Montjoy]

I understand your point. However, if you don't keep the kids safe you cannot educate them.

rsbm

While I agree, it's pretty hard to ignore that if it just takes some dude to send in an email threat, you can't educate them either. One of my closest friends in my doctoral cohort told me that it happened 'all the time' when he went to school in Vista and at the U of C schools he attended...but back then, it didn't make national news, and we weren't feeding into the publicity of supposed terrorists. But things have changed.

 

[katydid23]

rsbm

While I agree, it's pretty hard to ignore that if it just takes some dude to send in an email threat, you can't educate them either. One of my closest friends in my doctoral cohort told me that it happened 'all the time' when he went to school in Vista and at the U of C schools he attended...but back then, it didn't make national news, and we weren't feeding into the publicity of supposed terrorists. But things have changed.

LA schools get a lot of threats that they ignore. But my friends who still work for the school district say it was very alarming to find out that Farook was inspecting so many school kitchens. And they just got through searching and clearing the schools he inspected for weapons/poisons/booby traps. So if this threat had happened a few months ago they probably would have called it a hoax. But they are on high alert here because of the pictures of schools found in the terrorist couple's home.

What if they ignored the threat and then a bomb blew up? People would have been outraged and infuriated because of the recent clues that something might happen in a school. So I think that Cortines was in a tough spot and he erred on the side of caution. JMO

 

[Ray_of_hope]

DH just made a good point. (Every once in a while he does). He said that if there was an attack planned for NY or LA, the terrorists would not likely advertise it. Nonetheless, I respect the decision to close the schools. I hope the perp is found and punished. Why not make the perp work hard in lock up to pay restitution?

 

[bluesneakers]

rsbm

While I agree, it's pretty hard to ignore that if it just takes some dude to send in an email threat, you can't educate them either. One of my closest friends in my doctoral cohort told me that it happened 'all the time' when he went to school in Vista and at the U of C schools he attended...but back then, it didn't make national news, and we weren't feeding into the publicity of supposed terrorists. But things have changed.

Just looking at some headlines today it's obvious how of out control this is. Every little thing is suspicious and needs to be investigated. People should just be able to live their lives.