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Across the Los Angeles region, students regain some sense of normality

Students return to school a day after a threat that closed all LAUSD campuses was determined not credible.

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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.

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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.”

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.

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