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Ok so what is with this clown hysteria?


SparklyUnicorn
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Are you hearing about this in your neck of the woods?

 

One of the students I tutor told me about it a couple of days ago.  She was shocked that I didn't know what she was talking about.  I asked my kids if they had heard about the clowns and all of them told me that they had, even the one in college 12 hours away. 

 

It was the topic of conversation last night with the neighborhood moms.  Our public school has received threats from these clowns, and the administration is considering cancelling school tomorrow along with the football and homecoming dance. 

 

We live in a crazy world.

 

Edited by snowbeltmom
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One of the students I tutor told me about it a couple of days ago. She was shocked that I didn't know what she was talking about. I asked my kids if they had heard about the clowns and both of them told me that they had.

 

It was the topic of conversation last night with the neighborhood moms. Our public school has received threats from these clowns, and the administration is considering cancelling school tomorrow along with the football and homecoming dance.

 

We live in a crazy world.

 

There is a school system in my area that no longer allows for outdoor recess due to the clowns. What the heck???

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Yes, it's a thing where I live. My kids school district sent out an email yesterday to make parents aware of it and understand what is going on. Apparently some kids received threatening messages from a clown Instagram account - probably just kids being monumentally stupid, but I'm glad the district is on it.

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There is a school system in my area that no longer allows for outdoor recess due to the clowns. What the heck???

 

We are in a rural area, and the playgrounds are surrounded by woods.  Many of the moms I was with last night are not letting their kids go out for recess.  Other moms are asking the administration to have armed guards on the playground. 

 

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One of the students I tutor told me about it a couple of days ago. She was shocked that I didn't know what she was talking about. I asked my kids if they had heard about the clowns and all of them told me that they had, even the one in college 12 hours away.

 

It was the topic of conversation last night with the neighborhood moms. Our public school has received threats from these clowns, and the administration is considering cancelling school tomorrow along with the football and homecoming dance.

 

We live in a crazy world.

 

So, clowns are sending in threats to schools? What do they say? "Hi, I'm a clown and I'm going to attack your school"
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So, clowns are sending in threats to schools? What do they say? "Hi, I'm a clown and I'm going to attack your school"

 

Yes.  I asked the moms last night why the administration couldn't just track down who was sending in the threats, but I guess they are having trouble determining where the threats are coming from.

 

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Yes.  Lots and lots of hoaxes.  A kid in my town just got investigated for making 'anonymous' twitter threats ........ what kind of idiot think twitter is anonymous?

 

I am seriously baffled by the people who say they are scared or will carry a gun around.  It is a stupid prank.  People pretending to have seen them and other spreading the rumor.  Or people putting on a costume to feed the stupid hysteria.

 

No clown has harmed anyone. If you shoot a person for wearing a costume, you will go to jail-- and should go to jail.

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So, clowns are sending in threats to schools? What do they say? "Hi, I'm a clown and I'm going to attack your school"

I think so. They've shut down a couple of campuses over online threats that are pretty much just a picture and something not far off from what you're saying. That's how I heard about it- on the AP because it's actually caused schools to close.

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It's so weird.  I don't get it.  Most of the actual clown sightings have been benign.  It's just people dressing up as clowns for some unknown reason (copycat obviously, but how and why did this even get started).  There's nothing illegal about that or even inherently threatening.  But then there are those who have actually done illegal things while dressed as clowns.  Mostly I think it's a lot of rumor and threats.

 

There was a clown spotted somewhere in San Antonio.  So there are real people dressing up out there.  There have been threats made to specific schools.  That's not cool and is feeding the hysteria.  One school in PA I think got a threat that if they didn't cancel Halloween children would die.

 

I really don't get it.

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Yes. Lots and lots of hoaxes. A kid in my town just got investigated for making 'anonymous' twitter threats ........ what kind of idiot think twitter is anonymous?

 

I am seriously baffled by the people who say they are scared or will carry a gun around. It is a stupid prank. People pretending to have seen them and other spreading the rumor. Or people putting on a costume to feed the stupid hysteria.

 

No clown has harmed anyone. If you shoot a person for wearing a costume, you will go to jail-- and should go to jail.

This happened in Tulsa last night.

 

http://www.newson6.com/story/33330030/police-suspect-wearing-clown-makeup-attacks-tulsa-man-walking-dog

 

But I agree it isn't a good idea to shoot someone just bcause they are in a clown costume.

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Yesterday a friend told me that clowns are deliberately frightening people at a college near here. One example was of a young woman looking out her window after someone knocked on it, and a clown was standing there, then ran off.  It was very frightening for her.  

 

I think someone is going to be shot at some point.   I understand and agree that walking around dressed as a clown is not illegal nor inherently harmful, but someone is going to knock at the wrong window/try to scare the wrong person one of these days.   I suppose it is illegal to knock on a window of a home in an effort to intimidate/scare someone?  (Still not a cause for shooting; please don't anyone jump on me saying I think clowns should be shot on sight.)  

 

 

 

 

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For the last few weeks it had just been a hoax going around about clowns trying to lure people into the woods. There was also a hoax that a man in a clown mask was shot for simply being in the mask. People have also been calling and writing in threats to schools but even those alarm to be hoaxes and no real intent of an attack has been discovered.

 

I don't know about the Tulsa incident. But I wouldn't be surprised that someone has taken this mass social media hoax and saw an opportunity to actually cause harm.

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It has hit our area the last few days. Numerous specific threats against schools and individual students in our area. It caused chaos for a few days among students but has settled down. There was a sighting by adults near the school (not on the property) of one with a chainsaw. The principal came out with a letter but it pointed to it all being a hoax; I noticed he ignored mentioning the sighting very near the school. Luckily our schools are very, very secure so I'm not worried. That said, it is very unsettling. DD is convinced something big is about to happen to our country.

 

She now is not allowed to walk to the playground/ice cream shop after school anymore until this settles down, since the sighting was right near where many students go hang out. If anything, it has given good reason to discuss safety with my kids and I'm very glad we have a security system. 

Edited by magnificent_baby
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So, clowns are sending in threats to schools? What do they say? "Hi, I'm a clown and I'm going to attack your school"

 

Yes, several schools were named in my area, as well as specific students. This was all over twitter and IG. 

 

There are many reports in a neighboring town of sightings, but it's so hard to sort out what actually was seen versus rumors. 

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There have been two arrests that I know of in this area of people using a clown disguise to threaten people. As the police said in their press release, it wasn't about clowns specifically but about the death threats that were made against students in these two cases. These are not birthday party clowns but people using thick makeup to look like horror movie clowns and then coupling that with threats or luring.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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There have been two arrests that I know of in this area of people using a clown disguise to threaten people. As the police said in their press release, it wasn't about clowns specifically but about the death threats that were made against students in these two cases. These are not birthday party clowns but people using thick makeup to look like horror movie clowns and then coupling that with threats or luring.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup, we haven't had it our here so far, but in the city closest to us, someone in horror movie clown make up was attempting to lure a couple of kids into a van. So what may have started out as a stupid prank has been morphed by pervs and criminals capitalizing on it.

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Does anyone have any advice for me about how to help my ds11 be less afraid of clowns? We've had this creepy clown hysteria in our area and logic doesn't seem to help his fear. It hasn't helped that when he's been at school the texts and rumors start flying around. AFAIK the threats and sightings in our area have been hoaxes or unconfirmed.

He says he thinks that people who dress as a clown are probably 'psycho' and that's why they'e dressed as a clown, looking for kids to hurt.

 

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Does anyone have any advice for me about how to help my ds11 be less afraid of clowns? We've had this creepy clown hysteria in our area and logic doesn't seem to help his fear. It hasn't helped that when he's been at school the texts and rumors start flying around. AFAIK the threats and sightings in our area have been hoaxes or unconfirmed.

He says he thinks that people who dress as a clown are probably 'psycho' and that's why they'e dressed as a clown, looking for kids to hurt.

 

Had this same issue with my elementary age kids; they would not sleep in their own beds a few nights ago. Since it has settled down a bit at school, they are much more at ease now. I just reminded them they are just very rude people trying to scare kids and there is no way they can enter the school since it's so locked down. 

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Okay, America.  These are not clowns.  They are stupid kids in clown costumes who read about this on the interwebs and thought it would be fun to run around and scare people ha ha.

 

But they are not clowns - it's not like the guys from circuses across America have become suddenly homicidal, or there is some weird clown zombie virus that is transforming regular people into homicidal clowns.  They are also not warping in from an alternate dimension and disappearing again.  They have not been living in the woods as some weird clown subspecies like bigfoot and are now coming out to terrorize the rest of us.  They have not escaped from horror films.  

 

I would say there is a 99.99999% chance these are all regular kids between the ages of say 14-22 that got themselves made up based on internet silliness and think this is hilarious.  There are no clowns.  There are idiot kids in clown costumes pranking.  And idiot kids sending out pics they found online to further the hoax.

 

The hysterical way the media has been writing about it seems like they are actual supernatural clowns like in horror movies.  Uh, no.  

 

 

 

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So a spinoff of sorts...

 

I sub for the drama teacher at school. The instructor asked the class to invent an imaginary product, then create a tv ad featuring that product (plot, characters, script, etc.). They came up with "Clown Be-Gone," a spray that suspiciously resembles bug spray, only for those scary clowns that lurk in the woods. The script starts with a tranquil scene of children playing in a schoolyard. The ball rolls into the woods. A child goes after it, while his friends yell, "Don't forget you Clown-Be-Gone!" He does indeed forget. Scary clowns appear. Quick-thinking friends rush in with their spray.

 

It was so clever and cute that the teacher found some people who are coming in the film tomorrow.

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Okay, America.  These are not clowns.  They are stupid kids in clown costumes who read about this on the interwebs and thought it would be fun to run around and scare people ha ha.

 

But they are not clowns - it's not like the guys from circuses across America have become suddenly homicidal, or there is some weird clown zombie virus that is transforming regular people into homicidal clowns.  They are also not warping in from an alternate dimension and disappearing again.  They have not been living in the woods as some weird clown subspecies like bigfoot and are now coming out to terrorize the rest of us.  They have not escaped from horror films.  

 

I would say there is a 99.99999% chance these are all regular kids between the ages of say 14-22 that got themselves made up based on internet silliness and think this is hilarious.  There are no clowns.  There are idiot kids in clown costumes pranking.  And idiot kids sending out pics they found online to further the hoax.

 

The hysterical way the media has been writing about it seems like they are actual supernatural clowns like in horror movies.  Uh, no.  

The problem is that currently there is no way for a child to differentiate between someone pranking and just running around harmlessly in a clown suit, and someone with truly devious motivations. Unfortunately some of us live near areas that have actually had the rare scum bag capitalizing on the situation and going out and trying to commit a disturbing crime as a "prankster".

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We've had clown sightings in our area, and some school closures, but while they were initially reported as clown threats, it looks like it was unrelated. But we're in a clown-heavy area in general. For several years it's been common knowledge to avoid a particular park after dark because it's inhabited by juggalos. :huh:  

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We've had clown sightings in our area, and some school closures, but while they were initially reported as clown threats, it looks like it was unrelated. But we're in a clown-heavy area in general. For several years it's been common knowledge to avoid a particular park after dark because it's inhabited by juggalos. :huh:

As in Insane Clown Posse groupies or something else?

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A man walking his dog here in our major metro was just punched by a guy wearing a clown costume who came up from behind.

 

And this is the problem.  It most likely started out with teens playing pranks but now people dressed as clowns are committing real crimes.

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Yup, we haven't had it our here so far, but in the city closest to us, someone in horror movie clown make up was attempting to lure a couple of kids into a van. So what may have started out as a stupid prank has been morphed by pervs and criminals capitalizing on it.

..how would wearing scary clown makeup make a perv more successful at achieving his goals? It doesn't make sense. Still think it is a complete hoax.
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Yup, Insane Clown Posse groupies. They were meeting at the park across the street from the state psychiatric hospital. :confused1:

Save

Save

People are weird.

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Okay, America. These are not clowns. They are stupid kids in clown costumes who read about this on the interwebs and thought it would be fun to run around and scare people ha ha.

 

But they are not clowns - it's not like the guys from circuses across America have become suddenly homicidal, or there is some weird clown zombie virus that is transforming regular people into homicidal clowns. They are also not warping in from an alternate dimension and disappearing again. They have not been living in the woods as some weird clown subspecies like bigfoot and are now coming out to terrorize the rest of us. They have not escaped from horror films.

 

I would say there is a 99.99999% chance these are all regular kids between the ages of say 14-22 that got themselves made up based on internet silliness and think this is hilarious. There are no clowns. There are idiot kids in clown costumes pranking. And idiot kids sending out pics they found online to further the hoax.

 

The hysterical way the media has been writing about it seems like they are actual supernatural clowns like in horror movies. Uh, no.

Umm I haven't seen anywhere where people have thought it was anything other than people in clown costumes. That doesn't make it any less scary knowing it's teenagers and young adults in costumes. It seems to have started as a hoax that spread throughout the country but with hoaxes like this can easily come actual bad people trying to take advantage of the hysteria and try to actually do something bad. I don't know if that has happened yet but it isn't a far cry from how things like this can turn out.

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