Chicagoland School Placed On Lockdown, Because Enough With This Clown S***t

By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 5, 2016 5:05PM

Getty Images / Photo: Tim Boyle

Update, 10/7:
The UIC student who was detained by campus police was not dressed as a clown. The student, Oscar Chavez, was in fact wearing a costume he created that was inspired by artist Salvador Dali. The costume and performance were part of an assignment for his art class, DNA Info reported on Thursday.

Original:
The Great Clown Scare of 2016 only hit the Chicago area in earnest this week, but it already seems to be reaching a flashpoint. At least four more incidents—all of which prompted some manner of police response—occurred on Tuesday.

The good news is that the belabored-on-arrival phenomenon appears primarily isolated to the suburbs; the bad news is that scaring elementary kids is really not clever and is actually a pretty shitty thing to do, however empty the threat. It was enough to prompt school officials in suburban Waukegan to put Greenwood Elementary School on lockdown “after students at the school reported seeing three people dressed as clowns, carrying weapons at a home near the school during recess,” according to a statement from the Waukegan Community Unit School District #60. “Waukegan Police were called to the school to investigate the incident, and provide increased patrols during dismissal.”

West of Waukegan, in Round Lake, police notified parents that authorities had been made aware of the dreaded “JoJos (@WeAnitClown!ngaroun),” who has reportedly been threatening a visit to Round Lake High School—although RLPD made it clear it was (surprise) probably just a prank. Still, not cool, JoJos. (And according to the Tribune, North Chicago police are suffering through similar stunts.)

(In unrelated Round Lake Police Department news, they have beautiful sunsets there.)

Closer to home, a “performance artist” was detained by UIC police—but not arrested or charged—after joining the trend, or making a pointedly meta commentary about the trend, or… something. Whatever the case, we don’t expect to see him on 3Arts’ 2017 class of grant awardees.

[HT Tribune and ABC7]