U.S.
Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP
LOS ANGELES — The decision to close every one of the more than 900 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) because of a “credible” threat has disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of families.
Working parents scrambled Tuesday to find child care for their young ones. Despite the challenge, most posts on social media welcomed the precaution.
Twitter user @LizzyBfly wrote: “I support #LAUSD superintendents decision to close the schools today. NY fools saying we "overreacted" are foolish & unsympathetic.”
An almost-identical threat was sent to New York public schools. Both reportedly came from someone who claimed to be a local Muslim student who had been bullied and mentioned explosive devices, assault rifles and pistols. The email threat sent to LAUSD was traced to an IP address in Germany. The fact that the threats were so similar and came from an alleged student in cities on opposite coasts led New York authorities to deem it a hoax.
William Bratton, New York City Police Commissioner and former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, called Los Angeles’ school shutdown “a significant overreaction.”
Suroor Raziuddin, mother of 6th and 8th graders at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth disagreed.
“I’m glad that they did this,” she said. “I want them to take precautions. I’d rather be inconvenienced for the sake of the safety of my children.”
Raziuddin, an account manager for an asset management company, is lucky that she works from home most of the time. So her daughters, Farah Karim, 13, and Mariyam, 11, are staying home with her, “watching TV and being bored.”
She said parents have united and offered to care for each other’s children if parents had to go to work. Her personal trainer opened up his gym, brought in a child care worker and invited parents to drop off their kids. Public transportation offered free rides to anyone with a student ID to help students return home.
“If I wasn’t so sick today, I would’ve offered to watch other people’s kids,” said Raziuddin, who is fighting a cold.
There is no doubt that the mass killings just an hour away in San Bernardino earlier this month have made Angelenos hyper-sensitive to any potential threats.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck cited the San Bernardino attack and a string of school shootings across the country as warnings that have to be heeded.
The nation’s second-largest school district has more than 700,000 students, including charter schools and special education centers.
The repercussions also spread to many private schools.
Alice Ortiz, an office manager at a property management company in Sun Valley, said she was late for work because the private pre-school her four-year-old daughter attends was closed out of precaution.
“I had to, before coming to work, pick her up and take her to my sister-in-law’s house,” Ortiz said.
Emergencies such as these highlight the need for job protection for working parents, said Stephanie Coontz, director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families.
“It’s obvious we have very inadequate child care,” Coontz said. “There has to be laws and regulations that say you can’t penalize parents for being late or missing work in this type of emergency … We’ve got to have protections in place. There are so many cases of low-income workers who get fired if they have to leave work.”
Most parents relied on friends, neighbors and older siblings.
Alexis Rico, 16, a junior at Grant High School in Van Nuys, was on her way to school to take a final exam before the three-week holiday break when she found out about the closing.
“Now I’ll stay home and study for finals,” she said.
Maria Guerra, a history teacher at Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills, was on her way to pick up her three children – two in middle school and one in elementary school in Northridge – from their dad’s house when she saw a news alert.
She’s happy about the day off but not thrilled about the reaction to a threat.
“I’m not big on letting terrorists win, letting them change the way I live my life,” Guerra said.
She said many were “freaking out” on social media but she doesn’t believe the threat was credible.
“I’m sad we live in a society where we have to pay attention to stuff like that,” Guerra said.
She is planning a trip to Italy with friends and one person has already cancelled out of fear.
“In reality, you could get hit by a car walking down the street,” she said.
Guerra is more worried about the efficacy of the school district’s communications system, something that could be of even greater concern in the case of an earthquake or fire emergency.
“I didn’t get an official message from LAUSD until 8:37,” she said. “There was communication system overload … Some parents were getting it, some not.”
What happened Tuesday would be great fodder for her Advanced Placement government and history classes, where students have been discussing the presidential race, reaction to refugees and Muslims, and terrorist attacks.
“Each class has at least one Muslim student in it,” she said, something that has expanded the dialogue and enlightened students. “If nothing else, there are three classes worth of kids that realize that contrary to what the presidential candidates say, not every Muslim is a terrorist and not every kid from the Middle East is a Muslim.”
Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said later on Tuesday that the wording of the threats casts doubt that they were sent from a Muslim.
Guerra expects schools to reopen Wednesday. The school where she teaches has already gotten the all-clear from law enforcement, she said.
But until schools reopen, “We’re just hanging out watching TV, playing video games and enjoying an early winter break for the day,” she said.
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