Bomb threats emailed to several schools in Southern California cause classes to be canceled

LA PUENTE, Calif. (KABC) — A wave of threatening spam emails to several schools in Southern California, including Catholic schools, led to the cancellation of classes Monday afternoon.

According to police, Our Lady of the Assumption School in Claremont sent students home early after the campus received a bomb threat via email. Police determined it was not a bomb and that the threat was part of a wave of spam emails sent to hundreds of campus locations.

According to La Verne police, Damien High School was evacuated and closed for the day “in response to a threat against private schools in the area.”

Police added that the threat “appeared to have come from abroad and was deemed unreliable.”

Bishop Amat High School in La Puente was also affected by the threat and classes for parents were canceled out of precaution.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said its schools that received the email had canceled classes as a precaution.

“This morning some of our Catholic schools, along with other non-Catholic schools, received a spam email threatening the safety of the schools. “It is similar to an email sent last week to schools and institutions in Europe that was found to be unreliable and intended to cause disruption, panic and fear,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

Last week, bomb threats were emailed to schools and kindergartens in the three Baltic states, causing classes to be canceled across the region.

Although hundreds of children in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been banned from coming to school because of bomb threats, a senior Lithuanian official said there was no danger.

Other schools in Compton, Alhambra, San Dimas and Covina were also affected.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says it is aware of the threats and will “conduct patrol checks at local schools throughout the day.”

The LA Unified School District said it was not aware of any threats to any of its campuses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.