A new safety warning came from the Westerville Police Department on Wednesday after charging a student with inducing panic for making a scary clown threat on social media.
The warning went out to Westerville City Schools parents to reinforce school and public safety policy.
Wednesday’s alert was the latest from law enforcement across central Ohio involving scary clown pranks. The trend has local professional clowns concerned to wear their costumes in public.
"You know, we're just regular people back there just trying to make people laugh and smile and forget their troubles for a while,” Greg Osborne said.
Osborne has been professionally clowning around for the last 14 years.
"I love seeing the twinkle of a little kid's eye when they see a clown,” Osborne said.
In just an hour or two, he transforms into his character, Pozi the Hippie Clown.
"I see a happy guy. I think that's one of the biggest reasons I became a clown,” Osborne said.
But Osborne hopes when people see him, they aren’t afraid.
"Professional clowns would never do anything like that. We actually take an oath to never scare people,” he said.
Recent local sightings of scary clowns have police warning pranksters across the state. It’s been concern enough for the local professionals to dress down. Some professional clowns do not want to appear in makeup.
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"Many people are now afraid to go out in costume for fear they'll be mistaken for an evil or spooky clown and potentially physically harmed or arrested or something like that,” Osborne said.
Osborne calls the scary clown pranks demeaning to clowns. He says it isn’t what they stand for.
“I think they just want to make the world a better place,” he said.
Osborne hopes the trend will quickly pass so the professionals can do what they do best.
"It's like magic you know. It really is,” he said.
The local chapter of the Aladdin Shrine Clown unit is seen in festivals and parades across the state. The group will meet later on this month to discuss concerns over the alleged scary clown threats and decide if some clowns will participate in upcoming events.