FBI serves search warrants at Los Angeles school district headquarters and superintendent’s home

By ERIC TUCKER and CHRISTOPHER WEBER, LOS ANGELES (AP):- The FBI was serving search warrants Wednesday at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters and the superintendent’s home.

Federal officials in Los Angeles served the warrants as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe. The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear.

Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, confirmed that court-authorized searches were underway Wednesday.

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.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office said it had no information about the search and noted the district operates independently of city government.

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.

Carvalho has been its superintendent since February 2022. Before coming to Los Angeles, Carvalho 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.

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Tucker reported from Washington.