For the past few months, people have been dressing as clowns to terrorize civilians on the streets and through social media. The first clown sighting occurred in South Carolina in August, but now people are dressing as clowns in multiple states across the U.S. These people identifying as clowns have been using facebook, instagram, and twitter to make threats against specific schools along with broad statements against entire districts.

In Houston and the surrounding area, Schools have set up precautionary measures to make sure all students are safe on campus. According to  KHOU channel 11 news, a school in Bay City ISD went on lockdown as a precaution, and schools in both Humble and Houston ISD have sent letters home to parents addressing the clown sightings and threats. A 14-year old students in HISD has recently been arrested for making a “terroristic threat” on social media using an image of a clown. This student has not been identified because he is a juvenile.

Police and District officials have called these clown threats a “hoax”, a malicious deception, deeming many of the social media threats as “not credible”. While Houston has not seen any of these threats carried out, there have been reports of clowns attempting to kidnap children, and two incidences of extensive violence in outside states. It is important for students and faculty to stay calm, and stay vigilant. For students, it is important not to participate in rumors, seeing as these rumors only lead to confusion and fear. If a threat is brought to your attention, report it to the authorities. School officials and faculty will deal with the threat as quickly as possible to maintain a safe learning environment.

Cy Woods and other CFISD schools would not be open if there was any danger for students. It is important to stay calm, and trust the officials to do their job.