Student identified as suspect in school clown threat hoax

UPDATE 10/8/2016 6 PM:

Salinas police have identified an 11 year old elementary school student as the suspect in a recent school threat made on social media. School officials in the Alisal Union School District heard about a student who knew the user behind an Instagram account that was making the threats. Police say they got a confession from the suspect. He says he was trying to scare students by copying a nationwide trend of creepy clown social media accounts. The suspect was cited for cyber bullying.

PREVIOUS STORY 10/7/2016 6 PM:

Parents and school leaders are on high alert after two threatening social media posts in two days. Both posts involved creepy clowns planning to visit schools in the Alisal Union and Monterey Peninsula Unified School Districts.

The most recent case was on Thursday when Alisal Union School District officials got word of a post shared on Facebook. The user, “Creamy the Clown,” didn’t specify any intentions but told schools to “get ready.”

They did.

“We’re being vigilant, trying to have a presence out at our school sites,” said Marcos Cabrera, a public information officer with Alisal Union. “We’re sending extra administrators and support staff to each of our school sites. Also we’ve been told by police that they’re doing patrols at all of our school sites.

They say they alerted parents online and over the phone. While authorities believe the latest threat is a hoax, student safety cannot be compromised.

“We don’t believe there’s any credibility to the threats, and sadly it’s going on nationwide and locally, we are looking at this as copycat situations,” said Cmdr. Sheldon Bryan with Salinas Police.

Some parents we spoke to were afraid, others were frustrated.

“First, it is scary but I also think it’s kind of ridiculous,” one mother said. “I feel people should be doing different, better things. You want go out and canvass the neighborhoods? Go clean it up! Go do something! Don’t sit there and scare people. It’s just ridiculous. Why? For what reason? No reason.”

Clowns have been coming under fire over the years. Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, they were considered friendly and goofy with props like a big, red nose, sunglasses and overlarge shoes. But the perception began to change in the 1980’s when Hollywood began terrorizing movie-goers with films like Stephen King’s ‘It.’

“They are like the worst people ever,” said Amaria Cortez, a student. “It’s just because they’re scary, in the movies and stuff. How they have them, it’s a bad reputation for clowns.”

A Hartnell sociologist weighed in on the hysteria. Dr. Hortencia Jimenez said “The current clown sightings can be explained as a social panic – an exaggerated fear about something, in this case, the fear of people, particularly parents with children about a bad clown that is threatening their safety.”

But schools aren’t taking chances.

“I understand parents’ concerns,” Cabrera said. “And for me most important, because I’m on the inside and I understand the procedures that we have set in place, I feel like my children are safe and I’m just trying to send that message out to all my fellow parents.”

ORIGINAL POST:

Another Central Coast school district is taking steps to make sure students and staff are safe and feel safe after a clown hoax threat hit social media Thursday night. This is the third incident in Monterey County in about a week.

On Friday, the Alisal Union School District in Salinas said it is stepping up security as schools after the district was named in a post under an account named “creamytheclown” on Instagram Thursday night. The district confirmed the threat was deemed not-credible by police.

The post does not specifically speak about violence, but does tell schools to “get ready.”

Superintedent Dr. Hector Rico issued a statement to the district:

Important Message from our Superintendent, Dr. Rico:

Unfortunately, there has been another threat to schools posted online. This time, the “clown threat” specifically mentions schools in our district. My staff and I have been in contact with the police. We’re told that similar threats to other districts have been going around and that this latest one does NOT appear to be a credible threat. Nevertheless, we want to keep you informed. Additionally, the police is patrolling our schools and we have enacted proactive safety procedures at our schools district-wide, including sending to each school additional district staff to help monitor and ensure student safety. Schools remain open and school activities continue as usual. We will update you via a letter and/or phone message as we have updates.

Alisal Union said police will patrol schools and extra staff will be on hand.

Thursday morning, the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District said a message went out to parents after a non-credible threat aimed at two schools was posted on social media.

Last Thursday, a Greenfield High School student was arrested after threatening to shoot up and bomb Monterey County schools, using a clown alias on Facebook.