Dear parents,

In an effort to communicate information without creating unnecessary fear or panic, I want to share known information about a recent social media phenomenon involving clowns that has captured the attention of many of our students.

First, we have not received any credible threats to the District. Rumors indicating otherwise are false.

National and local media have reported incidents involving groups of clowns that have been instilling fear in communities across the country.  Most of their actions have been general, non-specific threats. Just this week a district in west Michigan put two buildings on soft lockdown due to threats made via social media.

Because the safety of our students is our primary concern, we take all threats seriously. Please be assured that we consistently monitor social media and work closely with local law enforcement to ensure any threats made in that forum are investigated. Further, please make it clear to your children that posting threats of any kind, even in jest, is unacceptable and can result in serious discipline. If you hear your child talking about following this activity on social media, please encourage them to stop.  If someone, or some group, is doing this for attention, we only encourage this type of behavior when we follow or “like” these posts.

To sum things up, we are aware this “clowning” phenomenon has been happening across the country.  While the information we have leads us to believe that the non-specific threats are baseless, we will continue to remain vigilant to ensure the safety of all students.

Sincerely,

Matt Wandrie

Superintendent