A threat purportedly made against Benicia Middle School by “clowns” on social media was determined to not be credible, Benicia police said.

In the past few months, “creepy clown” sightings have become a bit of a phenomenon. The craze originated in South Carolina in August when unsubstantiated reports arose of clowns trying to lure kids into the woods. Since then, sightings of people dressed as clowns have been reported all across the country. Some of them have taken to social media to make threats against schools, resulting in various educational institutions across the country being placed on lockdown and some schools going as far as to ban clown costumes during Halloween. Many of these threats have been deemed hoaxes, and very few have resulted in arrests.

On Monday evening, the Twitter user ClownGanng made threats against Grange Middle School and Fairfield High School in Fairfield. Police determined there was no credible threat, and the account was suspended.

On Thursday evening, a clown account on Instagram posted a picture of a clown’s face with the statements “I’m going to shoot up your school BMS,” and “I’m coming to get you BMS.”

Benicia Police Department Lt. Scott Przekurat said that since it was a nationally based account, it could not be determined if the threat was made against Benicia Middle School or any of the other nationwide middle schools using the “BMS” acronym. Nonetheless, the threat was reported to police by a Benicia Middle School student and officers were deployed to the campus on Friday.

Przekurat said the threats were not credible and likely a case of “social media getting people stirred up.”

Nonetheless, Benicia Police Department and Benicia Unified School District are still continuing to look into it as well as similar threats.

“As always, the safety of our students and staff is our top priority,” Superintendent Charles Young said in an email written to BMS parents. “The Benicia Unified School District and the Benicia Police Department take all threats very seriously and investigate them thoroughly. Benicia Police Department will be taking additional steps beginning today to increase police presence in and around our schools as a precautionary measure.”

Furthering Benicia parents’ anxieties, the incident comes less than two weeks after a threat was made online by a Benicia High School student against his school, resulting in Benicia High being placed on lockdown and the responsible student getting arrested and facing possible expulsion. In this case, no lockdown was enacted at Benicia Middle School and classes carried on as usual.

Young took an opportunity to remind parents to talk to their children about how to behave online and how to prevent misinformation from being spread.

“Please take a moment to talk to your student about making good choices online,” he wrote. “The best advice is to refrain from re-tweeting, posting or interacting with these threats. Rumors develop very quickly when social media is involved. We want to make certain that we are dealing with factual information.”

Following the Benicia High incident, the district established an SMS alert system to notify parents when incidents take place. Additionally, several of the district’s schools– including Benicia High– have conducted safety drills to prepare students and faculty for such incidents.

As of press time, no clowns have been sighted in Benicia.

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