Superintendent Ramon Cortines said today that LA Unified gets threats all the time, but called this morning’s message a "rare" one — sufficiently "credible" that he closed almost 1000 school buildings in the nation’s second largest district. Almost 700,000 students, their teachers and other staff members were told to go home or stay home. There’s been massive disruption at private homes, on city streets, and at the workplaces of anxious parents but, so far, no violence that can be connected to the message that started it all. Despite a similar threat New York schools stayed open and had a quiet day. Did LA Unified over-react?
Photo: A no-school sign at Florence Nightingale Middle School in the Cypress Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California December 15, 2015. (Jason Redmond/Reuters)