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Clown Threat Puts Belmont County on Alert

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Chief Deputy James Zusack earlier today notified all Belmont County school districts and local police departments of a “clown threat” that originated from a social media site.

Zusack said that a student from Belmont Career Center notified a school official of a Facebook page called “Ain’t Clowning Around” which threatened to invade Ohio schools with clowns on Friday. That school official then notified the Belmont County Sheriff’s office, and Zusack made calls to all schools and police departments of the possible threat.

“They were all told to be on the lookout. It is up to each school district to do what they want to do about the situation,” said Zusack.

The Facebook page has been taken down, and appears to have originated in Missouri, according to Bellaire Local Schools Superintendent Darren Jenkins.

“Typically, we don’t let strange clowns in the building anyway, and we work closely with law enforcement all the time. We notified Chief (Michael) Kovalyk as soon as we heard from Chief Deputy Zusack. We soon heard that the threat originated out of Missouri, and because of the geographic location of the website I was somewhat skeptical of the whole thing. We have security cameras on the outside of our building and all doors are always locked. Honestly, if we had strange clowns trying to gain access to our building we would call Chief Kovalyk. And frankly, if there were strange clowns walking the streets of Bellaire, Chief Kovalyk would be taking care of the problem,” said Jenkins.

Jenkins said that the district made an all-call to parents notifying them of the possible threat, and that the district would be on heightened awareness and keeping in close contact with law enforcement, but that the school day would proceed normally.

“We saw no need to over-react, and are moving on with our school day as usual. It is unfortunate that we live in a day and time that we need to be concerned with clowns and not educating kids,” added Jenkins.

However, there were “clown sightings” in Bellaire at around 6 p.m. on Monday, according to a report from the Bellaire Police Department which reads: “The complainant took pictures of the two subjects in the 4400 block of Walnut Alley as they stopped in an open lot and were looking at children on a porch in the 4400 block of Noble street. Both clowns turned their heads and motioned to the children to come to them. Complainant was unsure if the children saw them or not as they did not walk their way. The complainant further advised that something startled the clowns as they hid behind a bush, then they walked away from the area… Officers were unable to locate anyone.”

Union Local High School Principal Robert Mascolino said that the Union Local School District was taking steps to keep students safe, but would not go into specifics for “safety reasons.”

“We have our resource officers in the school all the time, and are in close contact with Bethesda Police Chief Eric Smith. We will have more of a police presence from the Sheriff’s department today. We are just being more cautious to keep our kids safe,” said Mascolino.

Martins Ferry City Schools Superintendent Dirk Fitch said that the district takes every threat seriously, and has been in close contact with law enforcement.

“As soon as we heard of the possible threat from Zusack, we notified Martins Ferry Police. Our buildings are secure anyway, but we feel we need to do some extra monitoring. We have male staff monitoring the hallways, and we will have police presence when the students are let out of school today. We are not on official lockdown, we are just making sure everything is secure and being extra vigilant. Chief McFarland and his police officers have been patrolling the campus and has been in close contact, and we appreciate that very much,” said Fitch.

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