Stonington — Just hours after Stonington High School Principal Mark Friese made an announcement to students reminding them to avoid becoming involved in clown-related hoaxes Thursday, a student at Mystic Middle School concocted a story involving a clown, prompting a response from police, according Superintendent of Schools Van Riley.

Police said they determined the student was speaking about an incident at his home Wednesday night that did not involve a clown.

On Wednesday night at 8:13 p.m., police said, a woman who lives in Brookside Village reported that while walking her dog she was approached by a skinny man dressed in white and wearing a clown mask. Police responded but could not locate the man.

Mystic Middle School Principal Greg Keith sent an email Thursday to staff and students’ families that states, “ It has come to our attention that some students are concerned about the stories we are hearing about clowns in the media. The clown story is something that people made up in social media and it is fueled by continued dialogue. The police department is confident that this is a hoax and there have been no actual events in the town. We will continue working together with the Stonington police department to ensure your children are safe at school.”

Keith added that police department’s Youth Officer Tom Paige already was scheduled to speak Friday with students in all grade levels at the school about the safe use of social media. He said Paige will now reassure the students that the clown stories are social-media-fueled hoaxes and remind them “not to get involved in any disruptive and inappropriate social media.”

He told parents that if their child is concerned about the rumors, to contact the school or a member of the school’s health team.

On Thursday morning, Friese sent an email to families sharing an announcements he made to students about clown hoaxes.

“We wanted to let our kids know this is not a funny thing to do. We wanted to remind them to be smart,” he said.

Friese added it was important for the school “to be proactive to prevent students from making a silly decision that can have a damaging impact on their lives."

The message that was read to students was as follows:

“As you may be aware, there have been many hoaxes statewide and nationally where individuals were arrested for using social media to make random threats using clowns as the threat. Please know that police have ways to search IP addresses on electronic devices and will find the people responsible. Your safety is our #1 concern. Please be smart and don’t get involved in anything like this that is disruptive and potentially dangerous to you and others.”

The incident comes as hoaxes and social-media-fueled reports of clowns threatening people have created near hysteria in communities across the country and prompted responses from police.