Classes were cancelled for the day at several schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Monday morning following a spam email threatening school safety.
The decision to alert parents and suspend classes at schools that received the email was taken “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
“The Archdiocese is working with law enforcement and there is no evidence of a credible threat at our schools,” read a Oct. 16 statement from the archdiocese. “All Catholic schools in the Archdiocese have been asked to follow our usual safety protocols.”
Damien High School in La Verne and Our Lady of Victory in Compton were among the schools that received the email, which was also sent to some local non-Catholic schools. A number of other schools in the archdiocese that did not receive the email also suspended classes for the day, Angelus has learned.
The threatening messages were similar to bomb threats sent to schools in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia last week as part of what officials called a “coordinated mass attack.” According a Lithuanian police official quoted by the Associated Press Oct. 13, the majority of those messages were in Russian and some “had a political content.”
“These false reports are intended to cause panic,” said Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite was quoted as saying in the AP report.
In a message sent to parents Monday afternoon, the Archdiocese said it was “in communication with local law enforcement and the FBI” about the threats and would “continue to monitor this matter and provide any additional updates as needed.”
“As it is expected that these spam emails may be sent to other schools, while there is no credible threat, all the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese have been asked to do a full security check of our campuses out of an abundance of caution,” the archdiocese said.
