At the entrance to Yorkdale Elementary School in Highland Park, Amanda Arreola stood on her tippy-toes, reached up to her mother, Claudia, and traced a cross over her heart. Her mother smiled and did the same, giving the girl a kiss on the forehead.
“I love you,” the 9-year-old said, and then bounded off across the playground, blowing kisses as she went.
The mother lingered for a few minutes at the chain-link fence as her daughter disappeared from view.
The reopening of schools Wednesday took on an unusual poignancy for Claudia Arreola and many other parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Just one day after a hoax threat prompted LAUSD officials to close all campuses, Arreola and others said they were still coping with a feeling of anxiety.
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“I was shocked, I was scared,” Claudia Arreola said. “You just never know.”
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Students cross Fountain Avenue as they return to Thomas Starr King Middle School in East Hollywood on Wednesday morning.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Students return to Thomas Starr King Middle School in East Hollywood on Wednesday morning.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Tiffany Hooper drops off her 8-year-old daughter Leah Hooper with a hug at Germain Street Elementary School in Chatsworth.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A skateboarding student passes a Los Angeles School Police cruiser near San Pedro High. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
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Students return to Franklin High School in Highland Park on Wednesday, a day after all LAUSD campuses were closed by a threat.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles School Police officers Alex Donoso, left, and Heriberto Valdez at Franklin High School on Wednesday morning as schools reopen after Tuesday’s closure.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Student board a bus in front of Franklin High School in Los Angeles as schools reopen on Wednesday.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Sunny Vargas, 16, left, Carlos Bello, 16, and Natalie Matossian, 14, raise flags outside Franklin High School as Los Angeles schools reopened on Wednesday.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A memorial of candles marks the spot where Andres Perez, 17, of Montebello was struck and killed by a city truck as crossed the street near his school at the corner of Avenue 60 and Figueroa Street in Highland Park.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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L.A. Unifed Police Officer Jose Zamora looks inside a classroom while conducting a safety check at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles school police search Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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L.A. Unified Police Officers Frank Avelar, left, and Jose Zamora leave Breed Street Elementary after conducting a safety check.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Shortly after L.A. Unified announced Tuesday’s school closures, a 17-year-old male student was fatally struck by a city service truck while crossing a Highland Park street. The teen was near Avenue 60 and Figueroa Street at about 7:30 a.m. when he was hit, Los Angeles Police Officer Jane Kim said.
(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A police officer secures the Robert F. Kennedy Learning Center in Los Angeles after an email threat forced the closure of all LAUSD schools on Tuesday.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles TImes)
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Elementary schoolchildren play on a snow hill at the Studio City Recreation Center in Studio City. All were from area public and private schools that were closed Tuesday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Elementary schoolchildren play on a snow hill at the Studio City Recreation Center in Studio City after all Los Angeles Unified School District campuses and several private schools were closed after a security threat.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Unified School District Supertintendent Ramon Cortines talks to reporters about the closure of LAUSD campuses.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Venice High School principal Dr. Oryla Wiedoeft talks with 17-year-old twin brothers Michael and Erik Sanchez about the closure of schools in the LAUSD on Dec. 15.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Venice High School senior Bernadette Rios, 17, waits for her mother to pick her up after officials closed all LAUSD campuses on Dec. 15.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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School buses are idle in the LAUSD’s Gardena garage after officials closed all campuses in the district following a “credible threat’ of violence on Dec. 15.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A Los Angeles School Police officer checks in with officials at the LAUSD’s Gardena garage, where school buses are parked Dec. 15 as officials investigate a threat against the district.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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El Camino Real Charter Academy in Woodland Hills is among the LAUSD campuses closed on Dec. 15.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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El Camino Real Charter Academy freshman Nazanin Nayeri, 15, calls home to be picked up from the Woodland Hills school on Dec. 15 after being informed that classes were canceled due to a threat.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Ben Gertner, principal of Theodore Roosevelt High School, center; Jose Espinoza, right, principal of Math, Science, Technology Magnet Academy; and a volunteer stand outside locked school gates on Dec. 15.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Hale Charter Academy Principal Chris Perdigao tells parents that the Woodland Hills campus is closed.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
As students flooded back to class Wednesday, Chief Deputy Superintendent Michelle King sought to quell such worries.
“I want to reassure students, parents, guardians, teachers and other employees that our schools are safe,” King said in a prepared statement.
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Only minor disruptions were reported, including a 20-minute lockdown notice at Calabasas High School around 9:40 a.m.
Principal C.J. Foss said the decision followed a car crash on Old Topanga Canyon Road near the school after which the driver and a passenger fled the scene. The restrictions were lifted when police arrested the pair.
At Thomas Starr King Middle School in Los Feliz, a stream of students trudged past handmade “NO SCHOOL TODAY” signs, left hanging from the day before.
Julio Felipe, 13, ticked away the final moments before first bell with his friends, his tongue stained electric blue from a morning lollipop.
He has followed some of the news about the shootings in San Bernardino, but the danger is still distant to him, he said. The threat on LAUSD schools was little more than an unexpected day off. He said he spent it reading “Catcher in the Rye.”
“I feel like this school is safe,” he said. “Out of all the schools in L.A., why would it be ours?”
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At San Pedro High School, 45-year-old mother Sandra Hackney said she felt some concern for her two sons but believed they were going to be kept safe at school.
Hackney spoke to them after the San Bernardino attacks about being vigilant and staying safe.
“It’s starting to become part of the norm with so much going on with terrorism,” she said. “They’re so used to hearing about it.”
Hackney said it was an unfortunate and unnecessary stress for her kids.
“They’re worried about so many things at school, their friends and now they have to think about terrorists bombing their school,” she said.
Stephen Ceasar previously covered California’s civil courts for the Los Angeles Times. A native of El Centro, Calif., he worked as a reporter for The Times’ education and national staffs, the New York Times and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. He is a 2009 graduate of the University of Arizona. Ceasar left The Times in 2016.
Ruben Vives is a general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Times. A native of Guatemala, he got his start in journalism by writing for The Times’ Homicide Report in 2007. He helped uncover the financial corruption in the city of Bell that led to criminal charges against eight city officials. The 2010 investigative series won the Pulitzer Prize for public service and other prestigious awards.
Garrett Therolf previously covered Los Angeles County government with an emphasis on its child welfare system. While at The Times from 2006-16, he held assignments covering crime, the revolution in Egypt and the conflict in Iraq. He is a native Californian, and graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
