Over the past several months, creepy clowns have been terrorizing several states across America. There have been confirmed sightings of actual clowns, with and without weapons, in more than 10 states. These clowns have repeatedly tried to lure women and children into the woods with money and sometimes candy, chased people around with knives, chainsaws, machetes, and have been caught in the headlights in the dead of night. Sadly, this hasn’t been the first wave of clown sightings, it has happened before.
In the 1980s clowns were spotted in the greater Boston area in the months leading up to Halloween. These phantom clowns terrorized the city by harassing children, adults, and sometimes threatening individuals with weapons for no reason. Some of the clowns even drove up to elementary schools in black vans and enticed children to follow them by using candy and toys. The reports of these clowns became so consistent that the county investigator had to be called onto protect children coming to and from school. He even stated, "It has been brought to the attention of the police dept. and the district office that adults dressed as clowns have been bothering children to and from school. Please advise all students that they must say away from strangers, especially ones dressed as clowns.” Despite the officer’s involvement, the clown craze spread to other cities around Boston and even as far as Colorado. While the majority of these reports described similar clown activity, others were more chilling in nature. In one instance, a clown in Kansas City threatened two young girls with a knife. The incident was witnessed by the victim’s mother and although she didn’t actually see the clown she said that the girls approached her screaming in terror. Apparently the same clown was spotted twelve more times, six of them being relatively close to elementary schools, in numerous cities across Missouri. Although the previous accounts are only a few of many, the 1981 clown sightings were the most intensely concentrated ever. Regardless, clowns struck again in the early 90s in Wisconsin but the incidents were not as widespread. Today, yes there are clowns in many areas of the United States and yes they pose a threat. Either way, people would not know as much about the clowns if it wasn’t for social media. Social media is a large interconnected spring board for real and fake clowns to spread their overall image of fear into the hearts and minds of millennials.
Today, authorities aren’t even sure where the clowns have come from and to be honest I don’t think this will end until Halloween at the very least. Also in case a clown ever comes to Ithaca College, I highly recommend following what Penn State did. In case you didn’t know, a large portion of Penn State students went “clown hunting” after there was an announcement about them. Sadly, they did not find any clowns in the vicinity. Regardless, these clowns are the real deal so please be careful going this weekend and the weekends until Halloween!
Disclaimer notice: no I have never seen a clown and I don’t plan on it.
