this is a special ed decision of al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm del walters. >> and i'm patricia sabga. breaking news out of los angeles where all schools have been closed due to what officials are calling a electronic threat. >> it has more than 640,000 students and more than 900 schools in 187 charter schools, all of the students are being asked to stay at home today. children who are already at school are being taken to safe locations to be picked up by their parents. >> the threat was called rare and brood. he says all campuses will be

searched until they are deemed safe. >> john, what have we learned? what do we know about this threat? >> this was a press conference held moments ago, and the superintendent turned the threat electronic in nature, but would not specify what that meant. the new york sometimes is reporting that someone telephoned a bomb threat to a member of the school board. and the superintendent says he wants every single school building searched. now imagine this, there are 640,000 students as del mentioned in the school district, so you can just imagine what a massive undertaking, such a search will be. when asked why he felt the need to close the whole school district, he called this a rare threat and cited recent events near and far from l.a. >> i think it's important that i

take the precaution based on what has happened recently and what has happened in the past. i have asked the chief to be working with the city police department and the sheriff before the day is over, i want every school searched to make sure that it is safe for children and safe for staff to be there. >> he says the school district is working to notify all parents, and officials asked everyone to work together. >> we need the cooperation of the whole of los angeles today. we need families and neighbors to work together with our schools and with our employees to make sure our kids are safe throughout the day. we need employers to show the

flexibility that a situation like this demands. and we ask you to show the maximum possible flexibility with your employees who are primarily mothers and fathers and guardians today in this situation. >> the superintendent says he will release a statement updating us on the situation before the end of the day. >> in fact, john, they are promising another news conference taking place at noon. but i want to go back to something that came up a short while ago, and it had do with the buses. what have you learned about that? >> the superintendent addressed that very point, and mentioned the fact that there was no students to pick up. it is still very, very early out there. it's about 8:00 pacific time. and since there were no students to pick up, there was no need to send the buses out.

so that's the only reason the buses were parked there. >> john henry smith, thank you very much. and we're going to talk to bernard parks the former l.a. police chief out there. you may recall him from several high-profile cases. we'll talk to him by phone in a few short moments. >> but right now, let's go to our correspondent on the phone. dena, how and when were parents notified that the schools were closed this morning? >> reporter: good morning, patty, the parents were notified roughly around the same time that the schooled were closed which was around 7:00 local time. the threat came in around 5:00. and parents were notified one the threat was found to be real. we are told that buses were being turned around in the middle of the morning on their way to pick kids up.

so some students are already in schools right now. those students are told to sit tight. when evacuations start to happen, they are told to meet with their patients at the various reunion gates. there are 900 schools being affected, and 187 charter schools. everybody is waiting to hear from law enforcement and the school district itself at what point they are going to meet up with the children who are in school. all others who are not at school, remain at home. >> this certainly throws a lot of schedules off. we have seen a lot of scrambling. >> exactly. it has been an abrupt and frightening start to the day here. you heard the superintendent ask for flexibility from the

employers for parents who have children. but the threat is such that it seems that employers are likely to be as flexible as possible, and parents are doing everything they can do keep their children safe and -- and feel protected. >> dena, it is del walters. this is doing on the heels of paris and san bernardino. is there a climate of fear in l.a.? have people there been more on edge than usual, and are you getting a sense from local media as to how concern they are that this might be something more than just a threat? >> reporter: well, del, as you heard the -- the threat is considered rare. now l.a. school districts get threats onning -- occasionally, but this one is considered a

rare threat, so the school district is closed. as to the feeling in l.a. i wouldn't say it's any more than any other place in terms of fear of terrorism, but it is something that everybody is aware of, and something that everyone is keeping their eyes open. and if law enforcement says it is that specific, and the school district says it is that specific, they are going to do everything they can to keep everyone protected. >> dena thank you so much. we should also mention again that this was a specific threat against the l.a. unified school district. >> let's go now to bernard parks the former los angeles police chief. thanks for being with us. are your sources telling you something that we have not already heard? >> no, i think this is so recent that there -- generally, things are basically being dealt with as we speak, and so i think the

things that probably are not made public, it's just how specific the threat is, and what type of threat, and so the fact that they are going through this general search of all buildings and also likely the buses, i think they are looking for something very specific. i think if it's -- you know, we -- we have lived in an era of very general threats and i think the real key is going to be at what point does the school district and its police department feel as though they have been -- done all they could to ensure the safety because as you know, we have seen enough false threats that -- just recently in another city, individual made the false bomb threats, this could go on and on if someone believes that this is a way in which to get attention. so i think it's one of those things you have got to play by ear. you never feel safe that you

have covered every base, but you must always take into consideration the safety of 700,000 children and several hundred thousand teachers and things of that nature, so i think that's why they made this decision. >> chief bomb threats against school districts anywhere in the united states aren't unusual. so what type of spet -- specific threat would lead to this type of action. >> it has its own security police department and they have several hundred officers, but the -- i don't know how specific this is. i'm assuming there is some very specific information for them to take this brood-scope action, because if you are just dealing with a general threat, then you are basically looking for a needle in a hay stack, and also

when do you call -- call it off? and what do you do the next time a general threat comes in? so the assumption has to be that they are dealing with something very specific. >> chief you lived and worked through several high-profile situations in los angeles yourself. has anything like this ever happened on your watch and if so, was it something that we knew about, or something that you kept secret? >> well, i think what you have is that you always have a decision to make. what is in the best interest of safety for individuals, what and how you might react in checking something out without alarming people. and this is always the debate that goes on. because if you don't notify people and you are aware of something, and then you have a tragedy occur, then you can imagine what the response is going to be. i was thinking when i heard this morning that -- and this is 30

years ago when bomb threats were brand new to a community, that we had individuals that would call in bomb threats at the local county public service building almost every friday, because once they cleared the building, they gave people the option of whether you wanted to go back in the building, and pretty soon they began to realize, people were using that as a means of getting off early on friday. so you are always in between trying to figure out how valid the circumstances are, and how valid the information is, and when you take action like has been taken today, how soon can you roll out of it, and what will be the reaction if tomorrow you get a similar threat. generally once you move into a

dramatic response like this morning, how do you roll back out of it, and how do you respond to the next one. >> chief talk to the parents who are wondering if this was real or not. and if it is not real, speak to the parents on the waste of time. what goes through your head in protecting the public and also not alarming the public. talk to those parents that are concerned this may not be real, and say okay, you scared us, but what did we get? >> first of all you are never wasting time when you make decisions that are in the best interests and safety of the community. when we had 9/11, we had people on television saying i don't want to be interfered with or delaid in travel. i don't want to go through all of these different steps to get on a plane. and you look at that and say, well, that's a total disregard for not only your safety, but

others. but i think the balance is always making a decision that you think is in the best interest, sometimes you are right, sometimes you are wrong, and there is criticism on both sides no matter what decision you make. so you have to decide what is in the best public interest and safety, and again, realize that none of these decisions are made haphazard, and none of them are made without some information, and so it's like anything that deals with prevention. you never quite know what you have prevented, but you certainly can't be criticized for taking all of the information in hand, assessing it, and making a decision. so it's never a waste of time. >> chief parks thank you for being with us. 640,000 students in l.a. being told to stay home or if they are at school, being sent home, because of what is being called an unspecified threat.

>> let's bring in our national security contributor who joins us on the phone. j.j. what are your sources telling you about what is going on in l.a. this morning? >> well, it's similar to what the chief said a few moments ago. this situation is one that appears to be, being handled with an abundance of caution. there has been some talk that after the san bernardino shooting, there has been some talk that they, or others are targeting schools. the police say they haven't gotten that far about this threat that came in. at this point, what they are trying to do is to take their time, sort through everything, make sure as the chief said

earlier, that this is that they understand what it is, because having such large police force already, the school district wouldn't necessarily take this action unless there was specific concern for something. >> when you say that specific concern, this threat was described as rare, but threats happen all the time, so what -- what sort of qualities? what sort of characteristics would be in this type of threat that could trigger the evacuation of an entire school district. the second biggest in the country. >> reporter: one of the things i have been told this morning is that the day and age that we live in now, threats can come from anywhere, and at anytime, and they don't necessarily have to be one-dimensional, or two-dimensional, they can be multi-dimensional, and they can

be triggers for other things. there are hundreds of thousands of students there. this is the second largest school district in the country, and we know that there are lots and lots of bad people out there that want to do things, and a part of this has come up a number of times from sources that i have spoken to who have said overtime there have been law enforcement in southern california very concerned about terror attacks in schools, against all slices of life in southern california, i think authorities there may having is on their hands that may speak specifically to schools, specifically to young people, and it may speak to los angeles in particular. and i think this is part of the reason why they are going very slowly with it. >> in the wake of san bernardino, do you think there is a tendency here to absolutely ere on the side of caution,

better safe than sorry? >> yeah, that is exactly the case. one of the things i will say though, that i learned within the last ten minutes or so, that even though this may turn out to be an abundance of caution-type response type of situation, one law enforcement official told me that there is no reason not to take this seriously. i'm not sure what that meant. but what i do know is that they don't want to leave anything to chance, especially in the environment that they are in now, in the aftermath of san bernardino, and the fact that we still know very little publicly about the people involved in the san bernardino shooting, relatively little, and what their designs were on -- on other attacks, and who their connections might be with, so even if this is out of an ab aban -- abundance of caution,

something triggered that caution. >> j.j. green thank you so much. our national security contributor. and just to recap for those of you who are just joining us. all schools in the l.a. unified school district have been ordered closed. any students on campuses have been set home due to a threat being described as rare by officials. the l.a. unified district school is the nation's second largest with 640,000 students, 900 schools, and 187 charter schools. >> and the superintendent saying that there are threats all the time, but this one, he said, is rare. there is going to be that news conference coming up at the top of the hour. we will bring you that live when it happens. when we come back, much more on the threat that closed the schools in l.a. and secretary of statiing john kerry is in moscow.

we'll be right back.

>> we have people who are desperately in need of jobs. >> hear from citizens caught in the crossfire... >> we want freedom, freedom! >>...and what america can learn from chicago's ongoing

gun violence. >> right now, the threat is still being analyzed. in an abundance of caution, the superintendent has indicated we have chosen to close our schools today until we can be absolute i will sure that our campuses are safe. >> that is the chief of the los angeles school police department discussing that threat that prompted officials there to close the schools this morning. this is what we know so far. officials saying they received that electronic threat against a number of campuses. that is when the decision was made to close all of the schools and send any students and staff who did come, who did arrive early, back home immediately. police and other experts saying

they will sweep the campuses until they are all declared to be safe to reopen. >> we expect to hear from officials with the los angeles unified school district at the top of the hour, we will bring that to you live. in the meantime new details are emerging about the female shooter in the san bernardino attack. including online posts. as john siegenthaler reports those red flags may have prevented her from every coming to the u.s. >> reporter: three background checks didn't reveal what she apparently didn't try hard to hide. that the woman along with her husband carried out the san bernardino mass shooting, supported violent jihad and wanted to be a part of it. the "new york times" reports she made her views clear online as far back as 2012 and up to a year before entering the u.s. in 2013 to marry farook.

>> had they checked her out a little bit more maybe she wouldn't have gotten a visa. >> reporter: but the department of homeland security doesn't routinely check social media postings of those seeking entry into the u.s. >> during that time period, immigration officials were not allowed to use or view social media as a form of the screening process. >> reporter: the department was concerned about civil liberties and public perception. >> the primary concern was that it would be viewed negatively if it was disclosed publicly. >> reporter: so with her social media accounts never checked she passed a screening process that included an interview in pakistan, and another with immigration officials in the u.s. the department of homeland security says a pilot program to check the backgrounds of individuals underway but not yet

policy. some lawmakers with pushing for change now. >> i am asking to immediately initiate a program that would check the social media sites of those admitted on visas, to see if they are talking about things like jihad, explosives, mass shootings. it's outrageous that this isn't already with done. >> the fbi says neither ever appeared on its radar. sunday the fbi wrapped up its search of a lake in san bernardino looking for clues of the shooting rampage. reports say the divers bureaucrat searching for a hard drive that belonged to the couple. secretary of state john kerry and vladimir putin wrapping up that closed-door talk in moscow. trying to narrow the differences concerning an end to the civil

war in syria. >> with regard to syria, vienna one, and vienna two were a strong beginning, opening up possibilities, and i think there's no question prime minister lavrov and i have agreed that together the united states and russia have an ability to be able to make a significant difference here. >> it is no secret the u.s. and russia disagreeing over the future of syrian president bashar al-assad, and his role if any in a political transition. the two nations talking about who will represent the opposition in peace talks. there is pressure on turkey today to do more in the fight against isil. ash carter is in ankara to drum up support for the u.s.-lead military campaign. carter says turkey needs to tighten its border with syria. he pointed to a 60-mile stretch that isil used for trade and to

bring in foreign fighters. carter spoke at the air base from where the u.s. has been launching anti-isil air strikes for months. >> we really are k -- looking for the rest of the world to step up. we need our allies and partners around the world to step up and do more. and that's true in europe. it's true in the gulf. it's true -- by europe i mean all of nato, including turkey. >> carter is asking military commanders based in turkey to come up with new tactics to fight isil. and those jury deliberations continue in baltimore, they are hearing the first case stemming from the death of freddy gray, jurors are trying to decide if this man is guilty in connection with gray's death. his death sparking days of riots

last april. police this time not taking any chances, preparing for any possible unrest, should there be a verdict. john terrett is at the courthouse in baltimore. >> baltimore is a city on edge this morning. the police leave has been canceled. officers working 12 hours a day, and police expect protests but they don't expect them to turn violent. they won't say what they will do if they do turn violent. but they have been working very hard with the local community since the riots of last april to show the local community how they are changing as a police force and avoid a repeat of what happened back then. the local school district has written to parents saying any violence will not be tolerated and kids should remain in schools. and the mayor has activated the city's emergency management center just in case. the jury heard impassioned

closing arguments from the defense and the prosecution. the prosecution saying officer porter didn't seat belt freddy gray in, didn't check on him, didn't call for medical help. and the jury came to work early this morning. they were in by 8:30. they requested an early start. we don't know if that means there will be a verdict today or tomorrow or it could be next week. but we'll bring that to you when there is a verdict. and when we come back, we will have more news out of l.a., where the l.a. unified school district as ordered all schools closed and any students on campuses have been sent home due to a threat, officials are calling rare. ♪