Michigan Town Reverses Clown Ban for Halloween

Officials in Oak Park, Michigan stirred up some drama when they decided that clowns were too scary and banned them from an upcoming Halloween celebration.

The Boo Bash is an annual trick-or-treating event held in the Detroit suburb's community center. The public invitation said: "clown costumes are not allowed." Oak Park's recreation director emailed the local paper to explain the decision:

This event is centered around young children. In the past few years many clown costumes have been given a very scary and evil look. Many scary and horror movies are centered around these types of characters. About 3 years [ago] there were national incidents in the news were people were dressing up as clowns and scaring people and in some cases assaulting them. Many people have phobias and anxiety about clowns. It’s because of this that we asked people not to dress up as clowns for this community event.

The public response was not in favor of the clown ban, many questioned the value of the ban. This week the city decided to reverse the ban and urge parents to use their best judgement when choosing costumes.

"The City will not ban people with clown costumes (or any other) from participating in the Boo Bash event," City Manager Erik Tungate said in a press release. "However, we are encouraging parents to use their best judgment given this is an event that caters to families and small children."