Does the word clown now mean something else in today’s society? Google defines the term clown as “behaving in a comical way or to act playfully.” For months now, creepily dressed clowns have been terrorizing the public. The New York Times reported that the phenomenon started in August of this year when a man wearing black and white clown makeup and carrying black balloons was spotted wandering the streets in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Though the man turned out to be publicizing a horror film, several weeks later a few more clowns were spotted by children in Greenville, South Carolina. They were seen using green lasers to try and attract children into the woods they were loitering in.

The New York Times stated that there have been reports of clowns in over twenty states in 2016. This clown calamity is not just recent, as sightings date back to the 1980s.

In the 1980s, however, the clown reports were mostly in fear of the urban legends that were generated in that time. Stories of phantom clowns caused mass hysteria among the locals in this time period. No clowns were ever captured during this era leading investigators to believe fear was driving people to see any “shady” characters as scary clowns. Could this mean that the panic we are going through right now is nothing, but an abundance a fear causing people to see normal, everyday people as dangerous beings?

The New York Time says, “Most of those who have been arrested in clown costume during the Great Clown Panic of 2016 have been disaffected young men who donned the attire to cause public distress.”

If the clown frenzy isn’t just a figment of people’s imagination, then the people of the United States (though there have been one or two reports in England, Canada, and Australia) are in for some serious fright for the month of October as Halloween approaches.

Other recent sightings have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Tennessee according to the International Business Times. In New Jersey, a child was chased down by a clown while walking home from school. In Tennessee, clowns robbed a fast food restaurant.

Despite clown sightings not being new in the Chicagoland area, The Chicagoist reports there was recently a clown seen at Montrose and Kedzie, in East Albany Park.

The Chicagoist said “And WGN reports that all 170 schools in the Chicago Heights district have added security after ‘a Facebook threat from a clown gang.’”

The Chicago Sun Times reported that there was a school in Waukegan that went into lockdown after students spotted three clowns standing near the school holding (allegedly) a knife and a gun.

On Twitter, Audrina Bigos of CBS Chicago posted a tweet from Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois that told all students and faculty that classes would be cancelled due to all the threats they were receiving. University of Illinois at Chicago also reported a clown sighting, but it turned out to be a student doing live performance art. The craze that is sweeping the nation, and gradually seeping into other countries, might be leaving some people in fear, but Penn State students have begun to retaliate.

Heavy states that “The groups of students – reported to be, minimally, in the hundreds – roamed around the Pennsylvania campus until early in the morning of October 4 after clowns were supposedly spotted at Penn State.”

There was a video posted by Addison Carson of Penn State that shows the students hunting across campus: https://twitter.com/AddiCarson/status/783164393504792577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The police stress the importance of contacting them as soon as possible if anyone sees a clown lurking anywhere. They are to be considered dangerous and people any witnesses should get inside to a safe place immediately. The epidemic will hopefully die out soon and leave people feeling secure in their homes and communities at last.