Over the past few months people dressed up as clowns have been terrorizing different cities in the United States. These sightings span almost all the states from east to west. The clowns have been reported chasing people with knives, bats, chainsaws or just being all around creepy and quite while dressed up.

Now, this weekend schools in Palm Beach County have received specific threats. Atlantic High School, Santaluces High School, Village Academy and Carver Middle School were the schools mentioned specifically in a phone call by school police to bring this to parents’  attention. Although the clowns are widely regarded as a joke, the school police are taking this seriously by increasing schools’ security in attempts to make us students feel safe from the crazy killer clowns.

The threats came mostly from social media. On Instagram a few accounts were made to try to scare students. The largest of these was “theofficalkillerclowns.” On this page Santaluces was listed as the first stop for the day, followed by Somerset Academy. Certain individuals were making requests for the clown, commenting things such as, “Come to Park Vista, but don’t kill me,” or “Kill this person, I don’t like them.” The account has since then been deleted either by Instagram or by the creator.

Although the threat can mostly be regarded as a joke or a hoax, it’s a good thing that the school police is taking it seriously. There is no reason to risk student safety for something viewed as a joke that could become substantial.