REACT: Quit Clownin’ Around!

With Halloween around the corner, pranks are fairly normal — from innocent scares, to vandalism. But recently, there has been a large increase of clowns being seen all across not only the Midlands, but the country as well. The situation has only gotten worse and worse as months have gone by, with clowns wielding weapons in Kentucky, New Jersey, and Florida.

The clown sightings have gotten worse and raised nationwide panic.

While the clown sightings started in Greenville, no one at RNE has seen any yet.

“I live near Windsor Lake, there haven’t been any,” sophomore Lauren Hymes said. “I’ve heard they’ve become a lot more frequent and a lot more severe in certain cases.” Hymes said.

Even if they haven’t seen a clown, student say the situation is horrific and revolting, especially if they spotted a clown with a weapon.

“There’s nothing I can do if they have weapons,” sophomore Aserid Mercido said. “Where I live, there’s woods, and (clowns and) that  don’t mix.”

Adults also shared concerns regarding the clowns and how they feel about the safety of younger children.

“I think our children should be made aware of this,” Sara Rowe, Media Center Specialist, said. “They shouldn’t be kept in the dark about this they should be taught stranger danger, they should know not to run up to any clown or any sort of person in a costume or any stranger at all and know not to go off with them; our children need to be educated.”

The No. 1 issue people have with the situation though is the safety of children. “My main safety concerns, I have to say, are little children probably.” sophomore, Will Emery said. “I mean my little sister walks to and from school and I like to think that they can travel to and from school safely.”

“People are taking this way too far,” Emery said. “They need to chill out and stop making people scared to walk down the streets at anytime.”