The month of October brings all sorts of fun festivities, but saves the best for last: Halloween. This holiday is a fun night that normally results in kids close to being in a sugar induced coma, costume parties and getting scared senseless. With a recent strange nightly occurrence in Kern County, CA. there have been clowns roaming the streets and chasing down residents.

These clowns have not been matched to any criminal activity and it is said that the whole thing started with a couple looking to take some cool photographs, but it escalated to much more than that, something that scares some people out of their minds.

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns and according to an online survey sent to students of Antioch Community High School, not many students at ACHS are scared of clowns.

One student, who ranked the scare level of clowns a one, said, “They [clowns] have been so over populized that they are no longer intimidating.” Although a majority of students found clowns to not be scary, is there reason for the students who do?

Popular responses of reasons to be scared of clowns were from watching horror movies based on clowns at a young age, being traumatized by older siblings who dressed as clowns, episodes of the television show “American Horror Story” which features clowns, John Wayne Gacy and because they have funny hair.

The Halloween season and holiday brings all kinds of scary activities like haunted houses and Fright Fest at Six Flags: Great America are sure to feature terrifying clowns, but what’s there to worry about? It seems like ACHS is Coulrophobian-free, but you never know who is hiding behind that big red nose.