By Mary O’KEEFE

Los Angeles Unified School District’s closure on Dec. 14 due to an email received by the school board that threatened the safety of students and staff of several schools may have turned out to be a hoax, but the fear and concern of possible harm to children was very real to the L.A. community.

On the evening of Dec. 13 the LAUSD board received an email that threatened several schools within their district. LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said it was his decision to close all district schools.

The email was specific to LAUSD campuses.

“There was never any threat made to Glendale Unified School District schools,” said Greg Krikorian, GUSD school board member. “But we take [these possible threats] very seriously.”

GUSD schools communicated with families through ConnectEd and email assuring them no threat was made to the GUSD. District officials reached out to the Glendale Police Dept. and the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. to make certain the schools were safe.

GUSD in the Crescenta Valley area is patrolled by three different agencies, depending on location. Fremont, Lincoln, Dunsmore and Valley View elementary schools and Clark Magnet High School are in far north Glendale and are patrolled by GPD. La Crescenta, Mountain Avenue and Monte Vista elementary schools, Rosemont Middle School and Crescenta Valley High School are located in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County/La Crescenta area. The California Highway Patrol covers any traffic incidents within this area and the La Crescenta area is patrolled by the LASD, Crescenta Valley Station.

The district has procedures and protocols for emergencies though, Krikorian said, it is always important to continue to look at those plans and find areas where they can improve. To that Krikorian has suggested meetings with officials of emergency response teams like CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams), law enforcement in both Glendale city and L.A. County, elected officials and community members of both Glendale, far north Glendale and La Crescenta. Those dates will be determined after the first of the year, Krikorian said.

  Mary Okeefe