With Halloween festivities abounding for the next few days, several Chicago-area school districts have added a new item this year to the usual list of bloody brides, gun-wielding cowboys and other outlawed costumes.
No clowns.
“In the past several weeks, news reports have been filled with stories about people dressing up like clowns and harassing or scaring people,” Peg Mannion, community relations coordinator for Glenbard Township High School District 87, said in a statement.
“In light of that, Glenbard East’s Halloween costume guidelines state that students should not wear costumes depicting clowns.”
Similar clown costume bans will be in effect at the 13 elementary schools at Community Unit School District 200, based in Wheaton, where parents were alerted weeks ago that clown costumes would not be permitted. At Elizabeth Ide School in Darien, clown masks and costumes are banned. At Prairieview Elementary School in Downers Grove, the school secretary asked parents in an emailed newsletter to use their best judgment to discern that “any clown masks not be scary clown masks.”
The bans come after a summer of hysteria across the U.S. over sightings of people dressed as clowns, with reports of the pranks going viral on social media, prompting police departments and school districts to beef up security as a precaution.
In the Chicago area, clown sightings or threats were reported in Oak Park, Oswego, Waukegan, Round Lake and North Chicago, according to Tribune articles.
“We have had no substantiated reports or any types of threats,” said Erica Loiacono, director of communications for District 200. “This is just a precaution for the social media phenomenon that’s been occurring.”
In Lombard Elementary District 44, schools will be closed for students on Halloween, but several PTA groups sponsoring a Monster Bash and other Halloween events in the district alerted parents that clown costumes would not be allowed at those celebrations, said Aldo Calderin, assistant superintendent of human resources and public relations.
Calderin added that the district hadn’t received any complaints.
“Everybody gets it,” Calderin said.
Perhaps not everybody.
Randy Christensen, president of the World Clown Association, said that each Halloween season, he spends a lot of time working to counter negative associations that horror movies, social media and pop culture have assigned clowns.
This year, there’s been more negative publicity than ever, said Christensen, whose organization has 2,000 clown members and who also works as a Red Skelton-esque clown named Simon.
“As clowns, we’re here to bring smiles and laughs and comic relief and giggles,” Christensen said. “Banning them just plays into the hysteria rather than using it for an educational moment.”
