LOS ANGELES (AP) — The FBI was serving search warrants Wednesday at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters and the superintendent’s home as part of a federal investigation.
Rukelt Dalberis, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, confirmed that agents were at the properties to serve warrants but declined to comment further because affidavits laying out details for the basis for the searches were under seal. A third location
in Florida was also being searched.
The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear.
The district and the superintendent’s office did not immediately respond to emails and a voicemail requesting comment.
TV news footage showed agents in FBI shirts and jackets outside Superintendent Alberto Carvalho's modest home in the San Pedro neighborhood about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown LA. There was no visible sign of agents outside the district headquarters as of mid-morning.
Carvalho has been the Los Angeles public schools superintendent since February 2022. Before that, he oversaw Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, from 2008 to 2021, when he was credited with improving graduation rates and academic performance.
The sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District is the nation's second largest, with more than 500,000 students and covering more than two dozen cities. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office said it had no information about the search of the district's headquarters and noted that the public school system operates independently of city government.
James Marshall, an FBI spokesman in Miami, told the AP that agents searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, which is in Broward County west of Fort Lauderdale, on Wednesday morning and “have since cleared the scene.” He said no further information was available.
Officials with the Miami-Dade school system did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on whether the FBI or other federal agencies have contacted them regarding Carvalho.
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Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Julie Watson in San Diego also contributed to this report.
