Creepy clown pranks not cool or funny, Toronto high schoolers to be told

After a creepy clown chased a group of children at a Toronto elementary school this week, Catholic school board officials have decided to let high schoolers know that it's not cool or funny to scare younger students.

In the incident on Wednesday, a teen dressed in a clown outfit scared students at Pope Francis Catholic School on Ossington Avenue near College Street. The teen chased students around outside while another teen filmed the chase. 

A student, parent and teacher told the office and the school called 911. Toronto police located the teens, both boys, aged 15 and 16, spoke to them and gave them a warning, and released them into the custody of their parents. No charges will be laid.

• Creepy clown phenomenon stretches from Cape Breton to southern U.S.

John Yan, spokesperson for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, said principals at school assemblies in the weeks leading up to Halloween will remind secondary students about appropriate behaviour. The reminder will come as principals reinforce a larger message about student safety.

"Pranking and scaring younger students is never cool and it's not funny," Yan said Thursday.

"It's not the costume that's a problem, it's the behaviour behind the costume. Whether you're dressed up as a clown or Batman, it's the actions that you do with the costume on that's the problem."

Yan said eight of the board's 32 secondary schools were mentioned in "unspecified threats" on Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram as being potential targets for clown attacks. Most of the schools that were mentioned are in Etobicoke. The board has reported the threats to Toronto police.

The board has also alerted principals of those eight schools to the potential threats, he said.

"We are taking any threat very seriously," he said. 

Yan said there are no plans to ban clown costumes on Halloween, which falls on a Monday this year. "The copycat syndrome and the fact that social media drives a lot of this bad behaviour doesn't help," he said.

Meanwhile, the incident also prompted one student, Brianna Medeira, to refuse to go to school at Pope Francis on Thursday. 

Maria Medeira, her mother, said her daughter witnessed the incident. Brianna said the clown chased about five students in the school yard.

"I saw people running because they were scared about the clown," Brianna said. 

Joanne Saragosa, principal at Pope Francis, said school returned to business as usual on Thursday after the incident but administrators assured families on curriculum night on Wednesday that there is a plan in place and counsellors at the school are available should children or parents need to talk.

"I think it's probably some sort of a prank. We're approaching Halloween right now. Kids of a certain age get ideas and they are not always thoughtful about how they follow through with them," she said.

Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu, spokesperson for the Toronto police, said the investigation into the incident is now closed.

"They were just two boys in the area that were making some sort of film or a video. And I guess did not understand the extremities of what they were doing and how terrified the kids in the area were. But police have spoken to them, they have been advised and this will not be happening again," she said.

Ryan Bird, spokesperson for the Toronto District School Board, said a handful of TDSB schools have been mentioned on social media in connection with creepy clowns but there have been no creepy clown incidents at TSDB schools this school year.

The creepy clown phenomenon sweeping through the U.S. and parts of Canada over the last couple of months is neither new nor unique to this part of the world, but it's taken on an unusual intensity this year.