Juvenile arrested, students questioned in ‘creepy clown’ case

Wichita police on Monday arrested one juvenile on suspicion of making criminal threats against schools as part of a “creepy clown” phenomenon on social media, authorities said.

In Maize, police questioned three high school students whom they say were involved in a prank photo showing a person dressed as a clown in front of Maize South High School. No criminal charges were filed in that case.

“They thought it would be funny to go take a picture of a clown in front of the school and post it,” said Maize Police Chief Matt Jensby.

“They were oblivious to the negative part of this movement that advocates violence, especially against schools, so they posted it on social media and got up this morning and quickly found out that it was probably not a very good choice,” Jensby said.

“Creepy clown” threats, which involve people posing on social media as scary clowns in an attempt to frighten or harass, have become a national phenomenon in recent weeks. At least a dozen people face charges of making false reports or threats or chasing people in cases that span several states.

One arrest

Sgt. Nikki Woodrow, spokeswoman for the Wichita Police Department, said one juvenile was taken into custody Monday morning after being identified as making threats against Wichita schools on social media.

“This juvenile will be booked on (suspicion of making) criminal threats as the investigation continues,” Woodrow said.

Wichita police were advising people to report any suspicious activity and had increased patrols around Wichita schools on Monday.

Just south of Wichita, Haysville High School went into lockdown briefly on Monday as police investigated a “vague threat” received by a student via Facebook Messenger, said Liz Hames, spokeswoman for the Haysville district.

Neither the student nor Haysville High School – formerly Haysville Alternative High School – was mentioned by name, Hames said.

Haysville police “launched a full investigation and determined that the Facebook message was not a credible threat,” she said. “This message was sent from a fake Facebook account and similar messages have been sent to school districts around the country.”

District alerted

Terri Moses, executive director of safety services for Wichita schools, said the Wichita district began getting word of threats on social media on Sunday afternoon.

Dozens of people took screenshots of clown-related Facebook posts and sent them to district officials. Some were vague, Moses said. Others named specific schools and included comments such as “Don’t come to school tomorrow” or “I’m not clowning around,” she said.

“A lot of times, youngsters see something that’s going on somewhere else and say, ‘Hey, that would be cool to do here,’ ” Moses said.

“In this case, a lot of people probably thought it was cool, but it’s very inappropriate.”

Increased patrols

During a news conference on Monday morning, Woodrow, the Wichita police spokeswoman, said officials were taking threats seriously and increasing patrols around Wichita high schools and at least one middle school.

Officials did not say which schools were named in the social media threats.

“Statements such as the ones on social media, false stories on clown sightings and individuals dressing up like clowns to cause fear and unrest within our community can be a serious felony crime, and the police department will definitely pursue prosecution,” Woodrow said.

“It causes unrest within our community. It causes people to be scared. … We take these kinds of comments seriously, and it will not be tolerated.”

Woodrow did not give the age, gender or other details about the juvenile arrested Monday morning as part of the investigation.

“It’s an open investigation, and we’re trying to get more people identified,” she said.

Photo prank

Jensby, the Maize police chief, said the three students questioned as part of the Maize South High clown photo – which he said was shot and posted around 11 p.m. Sunday – will face disciplinary action but no criminal charges.

“There were absolutely no threats made to the school or anybody else,” Jensby said.

“It was simply a kind of a prank or a joke without knowing what the movement was about,” he said. “It caused a lot of angst among parents sending their kids to school, and rightfully so.”

Woodrow said “every single state” has dealt with clown-related threats against schools or other organizations.

One day last month, schools in Reading, Ohio, were closed out of concern for the safety of students after a woman said she was attacked by a man dressed as a clown.

“It is not localized, for sure,” Woodrow said. “National news … they’ve all covered these stories, so that’s probably where this is coming from.”

Parents keep kids home

Several Wichita parents said on social media that they planned to keep their children home from school on Monday because of the threats.

Wichita school spokeswoman Susan Arensman would not say whether such absences would be excused. Parents keeping students home because of the threats should talk with their school principal, she said.

“We obviously are taking this seriously. We’re also working with Wichita police and taking guidance from them since there are similar cases across the country,” Arensman said.

“We are doing what we can to keep our students and staff safe.”

Moses, the Wichita district security director, said her staff considered the threats, responded to them and requested help from local law enforcement but decided to proceed with classes as usual on Monday.

“We made the decision that the threat was, at this point, controlled as much as we can control a threat and that the schools were a safe place for kids to be,” Moses said.

“Statistically, schools are one of the safest places for any student, and we believe that is still the case,” she said.

“But we are going to take these threats seriously. We’re going to increase our security as necessary,” Moses said. “We’re going to make sure we partner with the police department to ensure … consequences for this activity.”

Officials in Derby, Andover, Goddard and Valley Center said they have not received any similar threats against their schools.

Professional clown reacts

Brian Proffitt, a 35-year-old Wichita man who portrays Puddles the Clown at local birthday parties, school fun nights and other events, said he tries not to take clown phobias or the “creepy clown” phenomenon personally.

“These people are not clowns. They’re – I don’t even know how you would describe them. They’re not clowns, though,” Proffitt said. “They’re people dressing up to scare people.

“If someone puts on a hockey mask and runs around scaring someone, you wouldn’t say every hockey player is scary.”

Proffitt, who has worked as a professional clown for more than 15 years, said he doesn’t expect recent events to hamper business.

“I haven’t noticed anything different in the number of bookings I get or anything along those lines,” he said.

He said he’ll continue to don his red nose, orange hair, giant shoes and blue floppy hat and entertain Wichita-area youngsters, ignoring the “creepy clown” trends that pop up regularly, especially around Halloween.

“There’s nothing I can really do about it except continue to do a great job,” he said. “I try to think of positive things, like the little girl who came up to me recently and said she liked me more than kitties.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 8:58 AM with the headline "Juvenile arrested, students questioned in ‘creepy clown’ case."