Schools in Several States Threatened on Heels of LA Closure

Students in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Houston and Dallas were heading to school Thursday, hours after school officials in those cities said they received threats similar to the ones received by the Los Angeles and New York school districts earlier this week

Police converge on Edward R. Roybal Learning Center as all Los Angeles city school are shut down after receiving a threat on December 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. David McNew/Getty Images

MIAMI—School districts from Florida to California reported receiving threats Thursday, Dec. 17, similar to those that closed Los Angeles’s massive school system earlier this week, though in most cases students attended class without interruption.

Tuesday’s district-wide closure in Los Angeles was sparked by an email threatening a large-scale attack. New York City schools received a similar threat, but officials there concluded it was a hoax.

The closure of a large U.S. district because of threats is rare, and the move in Los Angeles—with the nation’s second-largest school system—reflected the lingering unease in Southern California after the attack that killed 14 people at a holiday luncheon two weeks ago in San Bernardino.

Some of the districts affected by the latest threats are among the nation’s largest—Miami ranks 4th, Fort Lauderdale’s Broward County system is 6th, Houston 7th, Orlando 10th, and Dallas 14th.

Texas

Districts in Dallas and Houston and another near the Mexican border reported receiving threats, though none has been deemed credible.

We need to make sure that we don't overreact to fear.

— David Brown, chief, Dallas Police