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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who brought her daughter back to school today in Los Angeles, a day after the entire school system was shut down because of an e-mailed terror threat, says no one she has talked to is second-guessing the decision.
Rebecca Alvarado, who was taking her five-year-old daughter to an elementary school near downtown, says she's "glad they shut it down." She says it's just "the way the world is."
But one lawmaker says the decision to close the schools could give terror groups the idea that they can "literally mail it in" -- and disrupt large cities just by emailing a threat. And Democrat Adam Schiff tells MSNBC, "They're going to take advantage of that."
Although Los Angeles schools were closed, officials in New York decided to keep schools open -- after dismissing a similar threat as a hoax.
The head of a consulting firm on school security, Ken Trump, says school leaders who are faced with a threat that they don't believe is credible will sometimes let community anxiety rule the decision to evacuate or close. This, even though children might be safer in school than if they are sent home where they could be left unsupervised. He says, "It's often better to keep them in school."
%@AP Links
081-a-04-(Mayor Eric Garcetti, D-Los Angeles, at news conference Tuesday)-"have children appreciate"-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says he stands behind the superintendent's order to close the Los Angeles Unified School District's more than 900 schools and 187 public charter schools as a precaution. (16 Dec 2015)
<<CUT *081 (12/16/15)££ 00:04 "have children appreciate"
076-a-13-(Chief Charlie Beck, Los Angeles Police Dept., at news conference Tuesday)-"back into normalcy"-Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says the department will have a visible presence at schools today. (16 Dec 2015)
<<CUT *076 (12/16/15)££ 00:13 "back into normalcy"
APPHOTO LA104: Students cross a street on their way back to Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015. Students are heading back to class a day after an emailed threat triggered a shutdown of the vast Los Angeles Unified School District. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) (16 Dec 2015)
<<APPHOTO LA104 (12/16/15)££
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