Milken Lockdown After Bomb Threat Call Appears to Be Swatting, Police Say
Students at Milken Community School spent part of Monday afternoon, October 12, sheltering in locked classrooms after a threat was called in to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police searched the campus and found nothing.
LAPD received the call at about 1 p.m. about a reported threat at the school on Zeldins Way, off Mulholland Drive near the 405 Freeway, KTLA reported. The campus was placed on lockdown while officers searched it. According to KTLA, LAPD said the scene was rendered safe and there was no evidence of any threat as of 3 p.m., and the lockdown was lifted.
Police first described the call as a report of an active shooter, then clarified that it was a bomb threat, according to JTA. LAPD told ABC7 that the incident appears to be a swatting call, in which a caller reports a fake emergency to 911. The investigation is ongoing.
Milken is a private Jewish day school serving students in grades 6 through 12.
Inside the classrooms
A Milken parent, who asked not to be named, told JTA that their son was in math class when the threat was called in. The parent said students pulled down the shades on the door and windows, locked the door, turned off the lights and sat under their desks, and that their son was scared and nervous.
The same parent told JTA they were not worried about their child's safety going forward, noting that Jewish schools tend to have strong security, and that their son returned to school the following days without hesitation.
Part of a wider wave
Milken was one of four Jewish day schools across the country hit with bomb threat hoaxes within about a week, JTA reported. On October 9, threats were called in two minutes apart to two Brooklyn yeshivas, the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School and the United Talmudical Academy of Williamsburg. On October 12, the same day as the Milken call, the Donna Klein Jewish Academy preschool in Boca Raton, Florida, was evacuated after a bomb threat that local Federation leaders later called fraudulent.
Security experts who advise Jewish organizations told JTA that hoaxes should not be dismissed just because no bomb is found. Richard Priem, CEO of Community Security Service, described bomb threats as a form of intimidation aimed at keeping people away from Jewish life. Michael Masters, national director and CEO of Secure Community Network, said these threats tend to come in waves and that the response usually comes down to the training and plan an institution has in place before the call comes in.
Masters pointed to the week's parsha. "When did Noah build the ark? Before it began to rain," he told JTA.
What is not yet known
The public reports reviewed for this article do not include a statement from Milken Community School, a timeline of how and when parents were notified, or any information on who placed the call. None of the reports mention an arrest.
Sources
Bomb threat that triggered lockdown at private Brentwood school appears to be a hoax, LAPD says, ABC7 Los Angeles, October 12, 2026
Lockdown lifted at Los Angeles private school following report of bomb threat, KTLA, October 12, 2026
Bomb threat hoaxes called into four U.S. Jewish day schools, JTA, October 14, 2026
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