Long Beach schools remain open after emailed threat called ‘non-credible’

Schools in the Long Beach Unified School District remain open with increased police presence Thursday, after the district received a threat similar to the one that shut down the Los Angeles Unified School District earlier this week, officials said.

The superintendent for Long Beach schools, as well as other staff members, received the threat early Thursday morning via email, said Thomas Hickman, the district’s chief of school safety. The district is being told by law enforcement that it’s “very similar in tone” to the threat made against LAUSD, Hickman said.

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The district immediately notified the Long Beach Police Department of the threat, and the department’s joint terrorism task force began investigating and communicating with the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI, Hickman said.

“We are going to increase our presence on the campus, which means the officers are going to be in and around the campuses today, patrolling each campus,” Hickman said. “Just as a precautionary measure.”

Long Beach Unified School Board member Megan Kerr confirmed the emailed threat and said schools would remain open.

The statement, in Spanish and English, on the district’s website said that the district had been emailed the text of the same or a similar threat made against LAUSD schools, but that law enforcement officials deemed it not credible.

The schools will remain on their usual schedules, the alert said, and parents are encouraged to send their children to school. There are 82 schools in the Long Beach district, Hickman said.

Times staff writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report.

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