11-Year-Old Arrested for Bringing Knife to School Says She Fears Clown Attacks

A young girl was arrested in Georgia on Friday after she was caught bringing a knife to school. The 11-year-old told police officers that she felt she needed the knife to defend herself from clown attacks.

The girl was arrested last week at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School in Athens, Ga., where there have been social media reports about scary clowns attempting to lure children into the woods, chase them down, or otherwise terrify them (and possibly cause bodily harm). The young girl told police that she wanted to protect herself and her family from the clown attacks she had heard about, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

The Banner-Herald further reported that the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice told police to return the middle schooler to the custody of her parents, but was still charged with possession of a weapon on school property.

A spokesperson for the Clarke County School District, Anisa Sullivan Jimenez, said on Tuesday that school staff have not spoken about clowns broadly with students, according to the Banner-Herald. Sullivan Jimenez said, "Our elementary comprehensive health curriculum addresses personal safety with students,” she said. “We have not specifically addressed clowns, except in individual cases where students expressed concerns directly to teachers."

Last week police were investigating reports that a clown had chased children near the East Athens Community Center on Sept. 13, the Banner-Herald reports. This was the first report of a clown chasing or scaring children in the Athens area, but reports of clowns in the Carolinas and elsewhere have emerged several times in recent weeks.