❝ Police say a fearful 11-year-old Georgia girl who took a knife to school told officers she needed the weapon to fend off clowns.
…The girl was arrested…at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School in Athens amid reports and social media posts about clowns frightening children in Georgia and other states.
❝ An Athens-Clarke County police report states the girl said she needed the knife to protect her and her family because she had heard the stories about clowns jumping out of the woods and attacking children.
Police…released the girl to her mother on a charge of possession of a weapon on school grounds.
Related news…
❝ In Coweta County, southwest of Atlanta, police were investigating a suspicious Facebook post by a man claiming to be “The Newnan Clown,”…
The profile, which has since been made private, said, “If I see you, I will get You!!! I want kids and all”…
❝ In neighboring Alabama, law enforcement officials are warning that people involved in a rash of creepy clown hoaxes across the state could be prosecuted.
Not certain what’s creepier: Kids so afraid of clowns they think they need to be armed or the kids who don’t think first of trusting their safety to their parents, teachers or maybe even the local coppers?
Thanks, @ninjaeconomics
Eideard 
Considering the ways in which our society is disintegrating and the extent of the threats that children now face, it’s remarkable they still place any trust in their parents, teachers or ‘local coppers’ ability to provide protection.
There are in fact legal solutions and scientific methods for solving the clown problem, all that is lacking is a radicalized population and functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions. http://qz.com/794560/police-are-investigating-a-bizarre-wave-of-reports-of-creepy-clowns-scaring-people-around-the-us/
“It’s not just you: Psychology reveals why clowns are so creepy” http://qz.com/798091/its-not-just-you-psychology-reveals-why-clowns-are-so-creepy/ see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulrophobia
‘Killer Clowns’: Inside the Terrifying Hoax Sweeping America (Rolling Stone) http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/killer-clowns-inside-the-terrifying-hoax-sweeping-america-w442649 “What the country is facing now is not the fear of clowns, but the aftermath that’s likely to ensue.”
In sociology and psychology, mass hysteria (also known as collective hysteria, group hysteria, or collective obsessional behavior) is a phenomenon that transmits collective allusions of threats etc., whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/be/f6/2d/bef62d8dca4387903967c8c2254cbdcd.jpg
A Freudian theory, now backed up by neuroscience, explains why so many fear clowns http://qz.com/804497/freud-on-why-so-many-people-have-a-fear-of-clowns/
Where Did Satan Come From? http://www.livescience.com/56341-where-did-satan-come-from.html
“Ronald McDonald lying low until clown scare blows over” http://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/12/ronald-mcdonald-clown-scare/ “For now, McDonald’s is benching its mascot.
In a statement Tuesday, the fast-food chain announced that Ronald McDonald and his signature red and gold garb won’t be seen in public for a while, at least until America stops being so collectively terrified of his kind.
The chain’s more than 14,000 locations nationwide are “mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities” and “are being thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events for the time being,” spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in an emailed statement to NBC News.”