The Bossier Sheriff's Office is trying to put an end to the "creepy clown" fad that's circulating throughout our region.

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Photo: Angela Thomas
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Bossier Sheriff's Lt. Adam Johnson, the Director of Security for Bossier Parish Schools, held assemblies at most of the district's high schools today to emphasize to students the serious repercussions associated with participating in this activity.

He reminded students at Airline High School that no matter how hard they try, they can't get a message or a photo back after they've pressed that magical 'send' button.

"Such as when you make a fake Instagram account and you call yourself some type of a clown, that's kind of causing a lot of panic throughout the community," Johnson said. "When you do something like that, and you make threats on educational facilities, you make threats on your community."

He told the teens when those types of threats are made, they will be investigated, and the sheriff has a zero tolerance policy for this kind of activity. He'll be speaking tomorrow to students at Haughton High School.

Sheriff Julian Whittington took a minute before today's assembly to share a message for parents.

"This Instagram stuff, with these clowns, this false information that these kids are putting out there, it's not child's play -- it is serious business. It is a felony. This will be on this person's record from now on. You're not too young to go to jail," Whittington said. "We just arrested a 15-year-old and two 14-year-olds for terrorizing."

Whittington said these kids think they're just kidding around, and it's up to the parents to help them understand just how much trouble they could be in if they get involved in it. He asks parents to monitor what their teenagers are doing on social media.

"It really saddens me that we have young people that will stoop to these type of measures, that will misuse social media to make these terroristic threats toward others," said Bossier Schools Superintendent Scott Smith. "Obviously, we're going to do everything we can as a school system to constantly educate our students on the appropriate use of social media. It's come to that point."

The sheriff's office says these three cases are not in any way connected to the one in Caddo Parish, in which a 16-year-old girl was charged with terrorizing.

Heightened security efforts have been put in place to ensure the safety of Bossier Parish students and employees. All campuses are being monitored for any threatening activity.

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