Starting in Aug. of this year, reports and videos of creepy clowns terrorizing people have gone viral across the country. Now, law enforcement, including the Santa Clara Police Department, have started taking measures against the threatening clowns. SCPD’s department head attended an FUHSD board meeting earlier this month to talk about the issue.
After discussing the problem with the district board, principal April Scott sent out an email to both parents and students at MVHS informing them about the new “clown” policy and encouraging students to be careful, aware and safe. Students can not wear face paint, masks or clown costumes to school, including on Halloween.
Reports of people wearing clown costumes attacking, stealing and stalking citizens all over the United States and even the U.K. have become prominent over the past few months. Because of this, clowns are more feared than ever for some people.
This policy has been greeted with mixed responses from the student body. Many think that, although the clown attacks have become a serious issue, banning face paint and masks is going a step too far.
“It is a really good idea… but not allowing face paint I think took it a little too far,” sophomore Ashika Jaiswal said.
Jaiswal thinks that administration should have banned only clown related costumes and masks, but not face paint. For the most part, freshman Sahana Prasanna agreed, but said masks should not be banned.
“I agree with no clowns for Halloween, because people are getting scared,” Prasanna said. “When they said no masks or face paint… I mean it is Halloween and I don’t think painting your face would affect anyone.”
Junior Avik Jain compared the policy to the hijabs and turbans worn by some Muslim extremists in a satirical letter he posted on Facebook. Banning the clown masks, he said, would be like banning hijabs or turbans.
“Obviously there are terrorist attacks by Muslims who wear those things,” Jain said.“But that doesn’t mean that Muslims in general, or people who wear the kind of headwear, are bad.”
For some people, the incidents have changed their plans for Halloween. Sophomore Ryan Rennels was planning to dress up as a clown with his friends.
“We were going to do this whole group costume thing, and we were all going to be different kinds of clowns,” he said.
Rennels said that even if the policy had not been passed, they would probably have not gone through with their plan because of the current fear surrounding clowns, but the policy made sure that they couldn’t do it.
“Not all clowns are bad, though, so I think maybe as long as it’s just for this year, because of the weird things that have been going on, it’s a good rule to have,” Rennels said.
