An unknown caller phoned in a possible bomb threat Tuesday that locked down George Washington Carver Middle School in South Los Angeles for roughly two hours, sending students out of their classrooms and onto the campus soccer field while officers swept the building. The lockdown began at approximately 11:55 a.m. at the campus, located at 4410 McKinley Ave., and was not lifted until around 2:07 p.m.
Police Clear Campus, Call Threat Not Credible
The Los Angeles School Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department searched the school after the threat came in, according to MyNewsLA.com. Officers ultimately determined the threat was not credible, and school officials said L.A. School Police would continue investigating the incident further.
While the search was underway, students were relocated to the soccer field, where they were supervised by school staff and given water, per the same account. Once police gave the all-clear, the report notes the school resumed its instructional day and dismissal proceeded as normal that afternoon.
A Similar Scare Played Out Weeks Earlier in Torrance
The Carver lockdown echoes a scare just two weeks earlier at South High School in Torrance, where an anonymous caller told police there were multiple bombs on campus before hanging up, as reported by the Daily Breeze. That threat, called in around 11:30 a.m. on September 23, triggered a shelter-in-place at nearby Richardson and Calle Mayor middle schools while explosive-detection dogs searched the South High campus. By about 4:30 p.m. that day, district officials said all three campuses were safe, according to the same outlet.
Hoax or not, threats like these force schools into hours-long disruptions while investigators work to rule out any real danger, a pattern that has repeated at multiple Southern California campuses in recent weeks. The legal path for actually prosecuting someone who phones in a threat remains murky in California; CalMatters has reported that a 2015 bill which would have made threatening a school campus a crime was vetoed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, leaving a gap that lawmakers have continued to debate.
