--- description: A Virginia teen was arrested for allegedly reaching out to a clown on social media to kill her teacher title: Teen Arrested After Trying to Hire a Clown to Kill Her Teacher image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Teen Arrested After Trying to Hire a Clown to Kill Her Teacher by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 3, 2016 7:49 PM CUT by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 3, 2016 7:49 PM CUT A Virginia teen was arrested for allegedly reaching out to a clown on social media to kill her teacher. The 13-year-old is a student at Davis Middle School in Virginia where security was beefed up on Monday in the wake of the threats. The girl is alleged to have contacted a social media user whose avatar was a clown with hopes that the person would kill her teacher, according to [WAVY](http://wavy.com/2016/10/03/hampton-teen-arrested-for-soliciting-clown-to-kill-teacher/ "undefined"). Authorities were reportedly notified about the threat on Sunday immediately contacted the teacher in question. The girl has been charged with threatening to kill via electronic message, according to Hampton, Va.’s [WAVY](http://wavy.com/2016/10/03/hampton-teen-arrested-for-soliciting-clown-to-kill-teacher/ "undefined"). **Read more:** [The Psychology Behind Why Clowns Creep Us Out](http://time.com/4513100/psychology-of-creepy-clowns/ "undefined") The arrest is one of many clown-related incidents that’s made headlines recently. [_Rolling Stone_](http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/killer-clowns-inside-the-terrifying-hoax-sweeping-america-w442649 "undefined") recently did a deep-dive into the phenomenon of creepy clowns reportedly luring children and hiding in woods. \[[WAVY](http://wavy.com/2016/10/03/hampton-teen-arrested-for-soliciting-clown-to-kill-teacher/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4517058/clown-for-murder-teacher-teen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4517058/clown-for-murder-teacher-teen/"},"headline":"Teen Arrested After Trying to Hire a Clown to Kill Her Teacher","datePublished":"2016-10-03T19:49:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:58:49.524Z","description":"The school beefed up security in response","url":"https://time.com/4517058/clown-for-murder-teacher-teen/","keywords":["Crime","U.S.","Virginia","justice","clowns"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4517058/clown-for-murder-teacher-teen/","name":"Teen Arrested After Trying to Hire a Clown to Kill Her Teacher"}}]}] ```