A bomb threat forced the evacuation of a California elementary school on Tuesday, days after right-wing extremists attacked the school online over a playgroup gathering.
Before classes began on Tuesday, Chabot Elementary in Oakland got the threat through email, prompting about 50 children and staff members to leave, according to the authorities. After investigating the school with bomb-detecting squad dogs, police found no explosives.
The email has some racial connotations, and we are actively looking into that, Oakland police captain Lisa Ausmus told the media. “The FBI has been contacted, and they will assist us with this investigation,”
After the school experienced an increase in online hostility related to a playdate event planned over the weekend for the school’s Black, Brown, Asian, and Pacific Islander families, the incident occurred. According to the event’s organizers, the predominantly white school organized the activity to promote belonging and connection.
According to Sam Davis, the district one spokesman for Oakland unified school system, “they’re trying to be warmer to families of color at the school.”
However, according to KRON4, a flyer for the event was quickly uploaded on Reddit and shared on Twitter by the far-right extremist account Libs of TikTok. According to Chabot’s equality and inclusion committee, the school received a flood of hate mail and phone calls when its contact information became viral online.
Someone once said in an email that they would “put you back in chains or in the forest where you belong” in reference to a racial conflict.
In schools, libraries, and hospitals around the US, Libs of TikTok has been connected to waves of harassment and threats. A library in Davis, California, was the target of a third bomb threat earlier this week. After a speaker at an event was allegedly asked to leave after misgendering trans athletes, the library came under attack from right-wing commenters on social media, notably Libs of TikTok.
Following the tweeting of a video by the school librarian in which she humorously discussed promoting her “radical liberal agenda” of “teaching kids to love books and be kind,” an elementary school in Oklahoma last week got two bomb threats.
A number of hospitals that offer care that is gender-affirming experienced threats last year. By the end of November 2022, Boston Children’s Hospital had been the target of three bomb threats. The hospital was mentioned in a TikTok post by Libs, who claimed that kids can receive complicated gender affirmation surgery there.