This shows it was something more than just kids trying to get out of midterms. What, I don't know, but it is always better to err on the side of caution.

...from coming to school. Preschool, elementary, middle AND HS age kids. NYC..because of the time difference..faced a different situation.

Keeping more than 600,000 kids home based on a random email threat is a victory for any fear monger who wants to disrupt our lives. If all ISIS or any other disruptive group has to do is send a threatening email to shut down a major city we are really in deep do-do.

to see who would defy and who would take a threat seriously?

I think that bomb threats need to be written off unless they include very specific information. Type of device, location of placement, identifiers that prove that you aren't just some nerd in a basement in Germany, screwing with authorities.

Without this, threats will be made every day and one of two things will happen. We will let down our guard, or kids will never get to go to class due to the increase in threats that are taken too seriously by officials.

they wouldn't have to be here..I'm sure that they would have had the means in place in the locations to actually do it. There's also a thing called VPN, where your IP address is masked to look as if it's coming from a different country than where you actually are.

Do you think (this is big time second guessing) that threats should be taken seriously without specific details? Apparently NYC got the same email and found that the threats were not specific enough (not credible). Do you think they should be specific in order to be taken seriously, or shut the school down every time any threat comes in?

I'm afraid that we are going to turn into a nation of cowards that will close a school district at the drop of an email and that this will encourage baseless threats.

the threats were against specific schools, and mentioned devices in packages and backpacks placed at the locations.

School blows up, you've killed kids...

School doesn't blow up and you've wasted time and kept kids out of school too long for no reason.

It's lose lose for the powers that be.

LA still has the S.B. massacre in the forefront of their minds.
NY has had a lot of threats and deal with this constantly.

Each did what was best for their citizens.

L.A. and all of the schools in the LAUSD are spread out across a far more vast area than in NYC. Much more difficult for first responders, etc., to contain if there would have been multiple events.

I am way far more concerned about gun violence and thr out of control police forces in the US then terrorists. Americans are doing a far better job killing each off then other groups. Too many people find it easier to point their fingers at external groups rather then fix our pervasive internal problems.

My belief is that the potential of inconvenienced staff, students and family is far outweighed by the potential of the violence to and fatalities of all ages we see on a routine basis.

I don't pretend to posses all relevant information, so my belief is admittedly, short-sighted. Yet when decisions affecting thousands (or even tens of thousands) need to be made in a matter of minutes, this particular amateur will more often than not, err on the side of caution and safety.

Calling a bluff is fine when made in front of poker chips, not so much when made in front of thousands of students.

Better to err on the side of caution.

where I'd have to make such a decision.

Different regions, different people making the decisions. Even if the same people are involved in another threat next month, they might make a different decision then.

People aren't robots.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

N.T.

What we know is that all of the kids are safe. But I do fear we are moving toward a "Wolf-Wolf" kind of situation. It is easy, as commenters have noted, to threaten by email/internet, but the one time it's real...heads will roll.

but I'm personally invested since two of my grandchildren are in the LA school district.

and I think NYC absolutely made the correct decision. You can't live in fear.

in NYC and I'm terrified. I'm on my way to pick her up at the end of the school day and give her a big giant hug. (And I doubt her school would be targeted, but it still scares the crap out of me.)

Because that's who I am, not because of an alleged credible threat. I refuse to live in that type of fear. My son has a better chance of getting in a car accident on the way home from school (here in Houston where traffic lights are a suggestion; not a rule) than he does of being targeted for terrorism.

I am. Which is why I drive carefully and follow all the speed limit laws and watch cars around me.

But yesterday there wasn't a huge news story about a terror hoax sent to LA and NYC schools. The idea that someone would consider targeting children at school is terrifying to parents who have children in those schools. Even though we all know it is 99.99999999999% likely it's all a hoax. I listened to Bratton and De Blasio yesterday.

And while I know that it was the right thing to do to send all NYC kids to school... and I send my daughter to school... realizing that the "threat" (even though I know it was a hoax!) was sent to NYC as well, and my daughter attends a school in NYC, made me fearful until she was safely at home with me. And I will probably be a little more fearful today than I normally am when I say goodbye to her at her classroom door this morning.

That's pretty normal.

Telling me i SHOULD be more fearful about something else is actually kind of rude.

Because... duh! I know that.

I am. Which is why I drive carefully and follow all the speed limit laws and watch cars around me.

But yesterday there wasn't a huge news story about a terror hoax sent to LA and NYC schools. The idea that someone would consider targeting children at school is terrifying to parents who have children in those schools. Even though we all know it is 99.99999999999% likely it's all a hoax. I listened to Bratton and De Blasio yesterday.

And while I know that it was the right thing to do to send all NYC kids to school... and I send my daughter to school... realizing that the "threat" (even though I know it was a hoax!) was sent to NYC as well, and my daughter attends a school in NYC, made me fearful until she was safely at home with me. And I will probably be a little more fearful today than I normally am when I say goodbye to her at her classroom door this morning.

That's pretty normal.

Telling me i SHOULD be more fearful about something else is actually kind of rude.

Because... duh! I know that.

Sprawl means LA schools tend to be a collection of single-story buildings. Poor funding means a lot of them use many "portable classrooms" (aka trailers), which provide a lot of space underneath to hide a bomb.

NYC schools tend to be denser, and are more likely to be permanent buildings.

That makes it faster to "sweep" NYC schools for packages or suspicious items.

No way will that ever be abused. And I doubt any LA teenagers are smart enough to be able to do that in an untraceable manner.

I think this incident is a good encapsulation of the NY versus LA mindset.

With that part. That said, I agree that NY handled it better.

Of course there are a million LA teenagers who are experts in this stuff.

The high-achievers probably look forward to the tests.

enough to pull something like this off.

I'd think that some high achievers would just as soon stop the show on Homecoming night, or Prom night, which can be more socially stressful than a mere chem or calculus exam.

The Los Angeles Police Department was notified about the “specific” threat late Monday night that was sent to a number of school board members, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck said during a mid-morning news conference.

The implied threat was “explosive devices,” “assault rifles” and “machine pistols,” according to Beck.

http://ktla.com/2015/12/15/lausd-has-received-credible-terror-threat-district-official-says/

But if he is warned, and the schools open, and there is an attack, he might lose his job. One day of missed learning and inconvenienced parents has no personal cost to him.

Your cost-benefit analysis seems lacking objective and relevant information, at best. But no doubt, you know precisely how to handle these like-situations and would be inerrant in your management... otherwise, your premise is reduced to empty allegations, and that certainly isn't the case.

One paragraph states "The threat against the nation's second largest school district was sent via email to a school board member..." and two paragraphs later states "The Los Angeles Police Department was notified about a "specific" threat late Monday night that had been sent to a number of school board members".

The Los Angeles Police Department was notified about a “specific” threat late Monday night that had been sent to a number of school board members, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck said during a mid-morning news conference.

The implied threat was “explosive devices,” “assault rifles” and “machine pistols,” according to Beck.

I don't get too bent out of shape over misinformation provided when info still being vetted

http://ktla.com/2015/12/15/lausd-has-received-credible-terror-threat-district-official-says/

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines still went ahead and ordered the system-wide closure.

Cortines' decision seems like an unjustifiable freak-out.

Think about what provisions the 800,000 or so LA parents will have had to make for childcare when the schools are closed. The disruptions at the micro level will be irritating and annoying but the economic cost city-wide at the macro level may be staggering.

and granted time off to their employees because of this. LAUSD was also urging this of employers.

parents of LAUSD student) lay idle. That's a cost to the macro-economy, even though individual employers may have lessened the irritation to their employees with PTO and the like.

is a teacher (3rd grade) in LAUSD. I am a parent of a young child in NYC schools. I spoke to her in the morning when I thought the threat was only made to LA. She was really upset by it. Shortly after, I realized the threat included NYC schools, too. I was also upset by it.

I am glad that we sent the kids to school, but I was anxious for the remainder of the day. And I'm still anxious today.

LA going back to school today.

I hope they track down who sent the message out.

the Terrorists have won. We heard that quote over and over in NYC after 9/11.

NYC did not consider this a credible threat. Why NOT? ISIS followers do not know how to spell ALLAH? You send a misspelled word for God to a USA School District? Sure. Plus, this is sent right after the anniversary of the Sandy Hook where children were slaughtered? How original. Meant to created PANIC and FEAR.

As JFK said many, many years, which I remember him saying, "The only thing we need to fear is FEAR itself".

My SIL is a NYC Public School Teacher. I will have to ask him if they even told STAFF, let alone Parents, of this threat. Just imagine all the panic it would create in the middle of Manhattan to evacuate just one school with 1,000 students in the middle of 50 story office buildings, condos, hotels, department stores, tourists, Christmas shoppers, etc. It would have to a VERY, VERY Credible threat to do that.

definitely exemplified it in his own career).

Mayor Eric Garcetti, speaking at the same news conference as Beck, added that the message included a number of forms of violence and weapons, and stated that “things were already in place to bring that violence about.”

Although the IP address was in Germany, the origin of the threat was still unknown, according to the police chief. He said he believed the threat came much closer than Europe.

“We are still vetting the threat,” he stated, adding that the LAPD has not yet determined whether the threat is credible or not. School officials, however, have referred to it as “credible.”

(snip)

Calling the threat “rare, Cortines said the threat was directed to “students at schools.” He added it was made to “many schools,” but did not identify any by name.

Garcetti later clarified the threat had been made to all schools.

http://ktla.com/2015/12/15/lausd-has-received-credible-terror-threat-district-official-says/

He said NYPD told them it was all a HOAX.

to divert resources away from other sites. I would be on edge tonight at any large gatherings in LA or NY.

... and doesn't have a black and white answer.

Like a self defense or police shooting, it is unfair to look at it with new information and in hindsight. You have to base it on what was known at the time and if the decision made was a reasonable one.

the NYC NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton used to be the top cop in L.A. and he said what L.A. did was a "significant overreaction."

Neither response was correct, they should have bombed the Middle East.