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Send In The Clowns: Characters Make Many Uneasy in Belmont County

Threat puts schools on lockdown

Photo Provided A Bellaire resident took this photo of clowns in the streets of Bellaire and notified police of their presence.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County Chief Deputy James Zusack notified all school districts and local police departments in the county of a “clown threat” that originated from a social media site on Friday.

Zusack said a student at Belmont Career Center notified a school official of a Facebook page called “Ain’t Clowning Around” where the student had seen threats that people dressed as clowns would invade Ohio schools on Friday. That school official then notified the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department. Zusack subsequently made calls to all schools and police departments in the county warning 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 (village police) 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,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the district made an all-call to parents notifying them of the possible threat. He said district staff would have heightened awareness Friday and would keep in close contact with law enforcement.

“We saw no need to overreact, 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,” Jenkins added.

However, there were “clown sightings” in Bellaire around 6 p.m. Monday, according to a report from the Bellaire Police Department that states: “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.”

Another clown report came from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department. According to the report, a caller from Mills Hill Road, Shadyside, said between 8 and 10 p.m. Wednesday her son was home alone and said a clown outside broke out all the windows and the front door. The son grabbed a gun and shot it in the air, which scared the clown away.

Another clown sighting was reported in the Martins Ferry area earlier this week. At 11:01 p.m. Tuesday, a deputy responded to Floral Valley Road, Martins Ferry, to assist police responding to a report of a subject dressed as a clown with an object in his hand.

Shadyside Police Chief Don Collette said he received a report from Shadyside High School Principal/Superintendent John Haswell on Friday morning that he received a clown image through either email or a social media message from an unknown sender.

“John Haswell called and asked me if he should send the kids home after that, and I told him it was his call as superintendent. He chose not to send them home. I made sure that we had extra police presence in all three of our schools. I’ve got all my officers on alert,” Collette said.

Union Local High School Principal Robert Mascolino said the Union Local School District was taking steps to keep students safe, but he 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,” he said.

He added that with the current state of the world, the potential threat of the clown phenomena could not be ignored.

“The deputies informed us in plenty of time to make sure we had a solid plan for keeping the students safe,” Mascolino said. “We take every step that we can, and with our resource officers we feel very confident.”

“With the threat, we’re just making sure the kids are safe,” said Smith. “This isn’t just a threat to the Belmont County area. We’ve seen threats all over.”

Martins Ferry City Schools Superintendent Dirk Fitch said his 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 (John) McFarland and his police officers have been patrolling the campus and has been in close contact, and we appreciate that very much,” Fitch said.

St. Clairsville Schools Superintendent Walt Skaggs said his district operated on a two-hour delay Friday because of a staff in-service workshop and that he didn’t hear about the threat until 11 a.m.

“When we heard from Chief Zusack, we went immediately into exterior lockdown, which means no one leaves or enters the building without a security or administration escort. We take these things seriously. We will be vigilant. Hopefully these people will be caught,” Skaggs said.

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