By Sarah Masciarelli

Over this past month of October there has been a rush of clown sightings across the U.S. Some of the sightings are pranks and some are serious, which makes it hard to distinguish whether it is a threat or not; some cases have been classified as pranks, but on the other hand over a dozen people have been arrested nationally. These sightings are problematic because the police have to take every sighting seriously as a precaution.  These sightings are occurring internationally, so what is happening in Massachusetts?

Westborough High School freshman Prachi Patel states “ I was scared at one point, but not anymore, I think it’s all false and rumors.”

A Westborough High School employee, Steve Masciarelli says, “ I think the whole thing is ridiculous.”

Due to precautions, there have been several Massachusetts communities that have had lockdowns in their schools in fear of clowns. Some schools have also banned kids from wearing clown costumes to school on Halloween. Sightings have been popping up in police reports, but some are not proven. An example of this took place in Southbridge where a report of a man walking around neighborhoods was left as inconclusive because they were not able to locate anyone that fit the description.

Compared to the rest of the United States, Massachusetts has been relatively calm in regards to issues with clowns. Most incidents started around colleges and have spread from there. The first sighting took place in Greenville South Carolina at an apartment complex.

The clowns have also started to pop up in Europe as well. A serious incident took place in County Durham when a masked man chased a group of 11-12 year olds to school while carrying a knife. The students were unharmed but shaken up. This incident is an example of how severity  of some of these cases have increased.

With clown sightings spreading around the globe, the hunt to find a solution to stop the increasing severity and spread of these creepy characters is on.