We tried hard to ignore the clown hysteria that’s gotten so much attention in the last week. It’s not typically in Campus Safety’s nature to report on something just because it’s been covered by so many other media outlets.
But the clown controversy is unfortunately affecting public safety and police departments across the country, and not all of the stories are a hoax.
In fact, many schools at all grade levels have begun warning students about bringing clown masks on campus as school officials everywhere struggle to decide on an appropriate response to such a ridiculous situation.
For those of you who have been mercifully spared a clown-related experience so far, we believe it all started in Greenville, South Carolina, with multiple people making reports of “clowns in the woods whispering and making strange noises.”
Since then, clown sightings have been reported seemingly everywhere, and as the issue gets more attention it only makes it more likely that copycats will want in on the controversy.
Welcome to 2016, where bizarre incidents go viral and leave people around the country wanting in on the action.
In order to make sense of this unconventional network effect, we’ve decided to compile a small slideshow of some of the most notable responses by school officials and police. This could easily include dozens of reports, but we tried to limit our mentions to incidents that school officials could get some insights out of. Hopefully this helps emergency managers make more informed decisions if they’re faced with clown-related threats.