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Halloween is still weeks away, but the scary clown craze seems to be getting an early and unsettling start in the Ottawa area.
A French-language school board sent a notice to parents of more than 22,000 students this week to warn them about the growing trend of clown sightings in the area after a violent threat to an Ottawa school was allegedly made on social media.
Clown sightings, as they’re called, have been popping up in cities across North America. While some appear to be harmless pranks, others have been more menacing. An Edmonton school went into lockdown on Wednesday for fear of clown attacks.
Students at Collège catholique Franco-Ouest in Bells Corners shared a threatening message they saw on social media with staff, prompting the school board to contact its Ottawa police school resource officer.
The threat, posted on Instagram, said, “Who wants to die first?” but was directed at St. Peter Catholic High School in Orléans, according to Marc Bertrand, superintendent of education at Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE).
The Citizen was not able to find the origin of the online threat.
The letter to parents said police determined there was no credible threat to students and that there are protocols in place to handle security concerns to ensure student safety.
“For us, anyone making threats toward the school or an individual is a serious matter and needs to be addressed. And so that’s when we took immediate action,” Bertrand said Thursday. A spokesperson for the Ottawa Catholic School Board could not be immediately reached for comment.
A handful of Instagram clown accounts have been created recently in the Ottawa area, although they don’t appear to be very active.
One of the accounts posted a photo on Thursday purportedly showing a clown spotted near LongfieldsDavidson Heights Secondary School on Berrigan Drive in Barrhaven.
While there was no immediate threat against any school in the French Catholic school board, Bertrand said he wanted to notify parents as a precaution.
“So they can better have the conversation with their children in the evening as some might be rattled by this. Students’ safety and wellbeing is always our main concern.”
CECCE serves 42 elementary schools and 12 high schools.
Police spokesman Const. Chuck Benoit said there is nothing criminal in dressing up as a clown in public, but some people could be fined for trespassing if they go on school property.
“There’s numerous agencies that are going to birthday parties or are hired for singing a song and stuff like that. So if there’s no criminal incidents that arise from (sightings) there’s nothing much we’re able to give,” said Benoit, adding the public should still remain vigilant for suspicious people.
Last August, Gatineau police investigated a case of two teenagers — a boy and a girl – for terrifying children while dressed in clown costumes at a local park. One dragged a long chain.
The teenagers were not charged after the investigation as they were minors, police said.