Photo Courtesy: KAKE
Matt Cooper
Lantern Staff
At around 7 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 7 sophomore Garrett Hartman was gaiting across campus after class when he spotted a clown. The prankster was alone and according to Hartman apparently had crazy hair and incredibly detailed make-up. Hartman noted that the clown was not indicative of any threat.
Hartman told of how the clown dressed individual he saw on campus almost seemed comical.
“If they were trying to play a joke, they did it really well,” Hartman said.
However, Hartman did point out what many around Butler County and the whole country have begun to take notice of. Killer clown type figures are a source of great anxiety this year.
In the wake of frightening accounts of red nose clad individuals luring children into wooded areas appearing ubiquitously across social media networks, Butler students are concerned for their safety.
Chief of the Butler Community College Police Department Tim Bryan confirmed that there have been reports of clown sightings at Butler.
“We have received four unconfirmed reports,” Bryan said.
However, Bryan did say that the reports have thus far been unconfirmed and were not coincident with any known threats.
“None of them have been substantiated,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s not illegal to be dressed as a clown, especially around Halloween.”
“It’s just been word of mouth so far,” Butler’s Deputy Police Chief Phillip Crom said.
Chief Bryan noted that because many reports have been submitted across the state and around the country, students are bound to submit reports of their own based on trending of clown sightings alone.
“They parrot it here at the college,” he said. “But it’s just not the case.”
Sophomore and mass communications major Steven Steinbacher said that he thinks the whole clown situation, which has reached across the county, has gone too far.
“I think it is kind of deranged,” Steinbacher said. “It has escalated past the realms of humor, and people recognize it as an actual threat.”
While no real threats by clowns on campus have been corroborated, Chief Bryan wanted to remind Butler students that security at Butler is generally effective in detecting the presence of individuals who may post threats to students.
“We have a very robust camera system and none have picked up images of a clown,” he said.
In an article published by Inquisitr.com, it is suggested that many clown sightings this year may come as a result of both the Halloween holiday and as hype in preparation Stephen King’s It, which will come to theaters in 2017.
The department chair of the Behavioral Science department Professor Nita Jackson also sees this apparent epidemic as nothing more than a sociological phenomenon based on pop culture.
“These things come and go,” Jackson said. “My supposition is that it has to do with the release of clown related horror films.”
Jackson recalled a time before Stephen King’s clown based horror film It was released.
“I don’t remember a student saying they were afraid of clowns,” she said.
Whatever the case, clown sightings are being reported across the board, despite whether or not they may be a legitimate threat.
At the end of the day, some Butler students take a dim view of any possible nefarious intentions on the parts of clown pranksters.
“It’s not cool,” Steinbacher said.
