Clowns are scary enough right? What with the white face paint, exaggerated drawn-on facial features, and bright ill-fitting clothing… It’s no wonder that children and adults alike have coulrophobia. And now, with the national epidemic of “killer clowns” on college campuses and surrounding towns, the number of people with a clown phobia is probably rising.

Whether you believe this clown epidemic is a massive hoax or not, the fact of the matter is that as long as people are reporting clown sightings, people will be afraid, as there is not much concrete information to prove or disprove that the clowns are, for one thing, real, and for two, a real threat to society.

Many college campuses throughout the southern and midwestern United States have had students report sightings of clowns (with weapons or not) on campus. Often times, these sighting are not supported by photographical or video evidence, so it’s hard to say whether or not there actually was a clown on campus. However, the reports, whether falsely-made or not, are enough to strike fear into the student body as well as surrounding city. This fear forces campus securities and even law enforcement to take action and investigate the reports – even if there’s no evidence to support the initial report.

Social media has also played a big part in fueling the fear surrounding the killer clowns. I mean, just take quick scroll through your Twitter feed – you’re guaranteed to find something clown related. In fact, there are plenty of clown sighting accounts to be followed. Accounts like these are able to quickly circulate information (false or not) from questionable sources. The lack of reliable sources only perpetuates the fear and mystery about the killer clowns. And then there’s Facebook. Not only are there watch pages, but more recently, Facebook pages have been created specifically by the “clowns” to post threats targeting specific people or schools. These threats, obviously, are taken seriously, often resulting in school closings or increased security.

So, is the “killer clown epidemic” a massive, nationwide hoax? Who knows. Sure, some of the reports are probably just made up by kids just trying to scare others. Some of the photos and videos could easily be staged or simply taken from older websites. On the other hand, some of the reports are genuine and some people really have been harmed by people wearing clown costumes. But until there’s more information regarding the killer clowns, the fear will continue to grow and reports will get more widespread. If we’re lucky, this will just blow over in a month or two… But given all the attention surrounding the epidemic, I sincerely doubt it.

But hey, should you ever find yourself face to face with a murderous clown, I offer you my roommate’s advice: “To survive a clown attack: strike, scream, sprint.”. After all, all “monsters” are human (thanks to Scooby Doo for this valuable lesson).

Stay safe everyone.