Recently, the news have reported people dressing up as clowns and committing crimes, including threatening schools all over the country, as Halloween approaches.

The clown craze started initially in South Carolina, where reports of clowns luring kids into the woods were filed. Since then there have been multiple clown sightings nationwide, and it wasn’t long until they reached the Bay Area.

There has been a rising trend on social media of people dressing up as clowns and posting threatening images and messages against certain people and schools. SCHS was one of the schools targeted on social media, with rumors circulating that clowns would appear on Friday of last week.

Though no clowns appeared, students were anticipating an attack throughout the day.

“There were supposedly clowns at Wilcox [last Thursday]; I’m kind of skeptical about it,” freshman Sonal Sur said. Unconfirmed rumors about clowns appearing at Wilcox had spread and influenced SCHS students to believe that clowns would appear again.

The threat was taken into account by school administration, and an email regarding clown-related concerns was sent out to all students, parents and staff on Thursday evening. In the email, Principal Greg Shelby wrote: “While there are no credible threats against SCHS or any other schools in our district, I want to reassure all families that we take all threats seriously and investigate all information we gain.”

Many students believe that the threats are a hoax, but concern is still present.

“People are doing it for attention,” freshman Maryam Bachar said. “It’s not about killing anymore, but someone could take it to the next level.”

Though some are apprehensive, there are many students who disbelieve any actual danger.

“Why would anyone go around terrorizing people for joy? It’s so stupid,” freshman Crystal Pham said.