LOS ANGELES — A lockdown was lifted at 2:07 p.m. today for Los Angeles Valley College after authorities investigated a call by a man who said he was coming to the school armed with guns.
A man called the general line of Los Angeles Valley College on Monday morning and made the threat, authorities said.
The college sent out two alerts shortly after 10 a.m. telling students to stay inside or stay away if they weren’t at the school. Police have put a containment line around the campus.
Numerous officers responded to the college, which has about 20,000 students.
Monday was the last day of final exams at the two-year public college, which sits on 105 acres in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. While there are no students on campus today at neighboring U.S. Grant High School, staff members were present, and the LAUSD campus was also on lockdown, an office technician told the Daily News. Summer school is slated to begin June 16.
Before the lockdown was lifted, LAVC announced that the campus would remain closed for the remainder of the day, and all final exams would be rescheduled.
Officers were first sent to the 5800 block of Fulton Avenue about 9:45 a.m., said Los Angeles police Officer Drake Madison.
Multiple patrol cars were stationed around the college, and officers with rifles could be seen patrolling the campus in images from KTLA.
The man who called in the threat was upset over failing a class, NBC4 reported on Twitter.
The sheriff’s department announced the lockdown via Twitter, showing a message they sent that says, “LAVC: VALLEY COLLEGE ON LOCKDOWN. STAY INSIDE & KEEP DOORS LOCKED. UPDATES TO FOLLOW.”
At 12:24 p.m. via social media, the sheriff’s department told parents who have children on the Los Angeles Valley College campus that they could go to the Grant High School parking lot at the corner of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Oxnard Street.
There were hundreds children on site for the first day of Monarch Day Camp, which has been operating for decades on the LAVC campus.
The day camp, which is run by the college’s Community Services Office, called parents about 2 p.m. and told them they could come to the campus to pick up their children.
When asked if investigators had any leads on the suspect, sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said only, “We have an ongoing investigation.”
