At Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, between 500 and 1,000 students gathered on the lawn in front of Old Main, the university’s stately administrative building, one night in early October after rumors on Twitter ricocheted through the student body that clowns had been sighted on campus. The students embarked on a raucous “clown hunt,” marching about a quarter-mile to downtown streets, university police said. Some of the students studied their cellphones as they walked, checking for the latest alleged clown sighting on Twitter. Some of the Twitter posts included what appeared to be stock photos of clowns. None of the tweets included threats, police said. Students and police found no clowns.
Some 442 miles away, a few students at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, locked themselves in their dorm rooms after someone posted a grainy photo on Yik Yak, the app that allows people to post anonymous messages within a radius of a few miles. The photo appeared to show a clown on a street near the school, university officials say, and looked like it had been digitally altered. While some students hid, others formed posses to look for the allegedly scary jester. Some students had heard a rumor that a clown had been seen chasing someone on campus, and others may have simply been afraid of clowns, school officials said. Campus police officers tried to calm edgy students, telling them, “There’s no clowns out here, and if you see someone dressed as a clown, think through your strategy,” says university police Chief John McCandless. “It’s not against the law to dress as a clown, so you can’t do anything.” No clowns were found at or near the university.
For many people, clowns are simply jesters with colorful makeup and funny-looking hair and clothes who entertain kids and adults at parties, variety shows and rodeos. But not all people are amused by clowns, especially if they appear in locations where they are not expected. Since September, hundreds of reports of creepy clowns lurking near schools and in residential neighborhoods have alarmed people in 33 states throughout the country. Virtually all of the sightings of what some people consider sinister-looking jesters turned out to be inaccurate or hoaxes promoted on social media.
In Texas, police arrested a 14-year-old student for allegedly using his Twitter account to post a threat against a middle school. The menacing tweet allegedly included a picture of a clown, two teachers and the school principal, plus a reference to shooting up the school. Law enforcement officials have reported similar arrests in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, someone in a clown costume tried to lure kids into the woods, police said. In the Detroit area, law enforcement officers were investigating an incident in which a 9-year-old boy said he was attacked with a butter knife by someone dressed as a clown. The flurry of alleged clown sightings and threats have brought into sharp focus the balance school and police officials must strike between providing security and promoting calm.
Clown sighting at Penn State ignites raucous ‘clown hunt’ by students. https://t.co/Kmboq0G3OX pic.twitter.com/BuwiafqSjW
— PennLive.com (@PennLive) October 4, 2016
[See: 8 Ways to Relax — Now.]
Though it’s not illegal to portray a clown, millions of people are afraid of them, which is why some people are scared even by reports of clown sightings without any accompanying threats. While there are no precise statistics, experts estimate that between 2 and 12 percent of the population suffers from coulrophobia, a fear of clowns. “To many, they’re considered scary and dangerous,” says Michelle Maidenberg, a psychotherapist based in Harrison, New York. “It doesn’t help that clowns wear a full face of makeup that disguises and hides their true identities and feelings. That may leave us, individuals of all ages, wondering and worried.”
During the past 40 years, real events and negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture may have contributed to an increase in the number of people who are afraid of jesters, says Derek Arnold, an instructor in the department of communication at Villanova University who is an expert in crisis management and communication and conspiracy theories. In 1986, novelist Stephen King published “It,” in which a clown terrorizes a group of kids. In recent years, a series of “Batman” movies have featured a homicidal Joker.
[See: 10 of the Biggest Health Threats Facing Your Kids This School Year.]
Whether the threats are fictional or real, school officials and law enforcement authorities can take a number of steps to keep students of all ages and their parents calm, while reassuring them that officials are doing all they can to maintain safety. Of course, clowns aren’t the only threats that school authorities and police officials have to grapple with. Here are three specific approaches officials and parents can take to help keep students and others tranquil or to help them cope with tragedy, whether the danger comes from clowns, terrorism or gunmen on or near campus.
Be transparent and communicate promptly. Authorities should provide a consistent stream of reliable information to students, parents and community members to counter social media rumors and prevent their imaginations from running wild, says Wendy Patrick, the San Diego chapter president of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and a local prosecutor. Providing timely information — whether it’s about a clown sighting, a report of a gunman on campus or a terrorist threat — can help parents, students, school staff members and the community at large evaluate what steps they should take to keep themselves safe.
Officials can provide information through emails and texts as well as social media, such as a school’s or police department’s Facebook page or Twitter feed. “Bad people are good at scaring a community that is already on edge, due to the culture of fear we live in, with threats of terrorism and other concerns,” Patrick says. “Transparency from authorities in relaying what is and isn’t a threat and providing tips that families [and individuals] can use to keep themselves safe is the best way to decrease fear.” If law enforcement authorities determine that clown scares or reports of other threats such as a terrorist threat or a gunman on campus are unfounded, sharing that information will help keep students and others calm.
Don’t try to talk people out of their thoughts and feelings. Parents, teachers and others who deal with kids shouldn’t dismiss their anxieties about clowns or other threats, such as terrorism or fears that a gunman will invade their school. “Don’t try to talk [kids] out of their feelings about the unlikelihood they would be victims of clowns, terrorism or a campus gunman,” Maidenberg says. “A talk with teens and adults could go into more specifics because they can process information differently due to the maturity of the problem-solving part of their brain, the prefrontal cortex, which allows them to comprehend, process and respond intellectually and practically, not just emotionally. Ask them about the details of their fears and be there to respond to their questions and support them through their fears.”
[See: How to Find the Best Mental Health Professional for You.]
When tragedy strikes, respond quickly no matter its cause. In April 2012, a gunman killed two graduate students from the University of Southern California on a street near USC’s Los Angeles campus. Varun Soni, the dean of religious life at USC, quickly helped organize a candlelight vigil at the university. Friends of the victims, top university officials and Soni spoke at the event, and about 2,000 people attended.
Holding a vigil was important because many USC students were confused, fearful and in shock. The university has 42,000 students, and the gathering helped bring together people who could help support each other. “The vigil helped create a sense of community and solidarity,” Soni says. “Our biggest source of strength in times of tragedy is other students. A vigil is visceral and immediate, and it helps students connect to each other. It’s also an opportunity to deploy resources, such as grief counselors and chaplains, who we had at the vigil.”
More from U.S. News
11 Simple, Proven Ways to Optimize Your Mental Health
How to Find the Best Mental Health Professional for You
10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids’ Health
Coping With Creepy Clown Scares and Other Threats originally appeared on usnews.com
