Oct. 31 is a day filled will contentment, candy, and costumes; however, dangers still loom on this notified frightening night, and I’m not talking about the intimidating decorations. 

For some reason, no one seems to question taking candy from complete strangers on this night. Any other day people would think twice about consuming food/candy they got from complete strangers. Although the candy may be wrapped, anything can be injected to the treat that leaves behind a tiny hole they can just tuck under a flap; and let’s be honest, kids aren’t going to deeply examine a Snickers bar before shoving it in their sugar-filled mouth. 

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, before you even can consume the candy, your kids have to approach the door of a complete stranger on the other side that you have no idea of their background. One olden Rule” parents always teach their kids is to never talk to strangers. However, on Halloween all the rules go out the window–they send their kids up to knock on a random person’s home and beg them for food. Yes, that seems completely safe and nothing creepy out of that. 

Walking from house to house is tiring for parents and very hard to control two or three sugar high kids running around from one stranger’s home to the other. When there is a dozen of uncontrolled kids constantly running from house to house right near a busy road, that just screams danger for children, because a driver may not see a child dressed in, all-black Darth Vader suit, sprinting across the road. 

Halloween defenders might be reading this and arguing– “why would you want to get rid of such an American tradition?” They might argue that Halloween ranks right up there with Thanksgiving as one of our untouchable American institutions. Halloween is a major holiday and many parents believe it is safe. However, there have been countless amounts of ‘traditions’ people believe are ‘safe.’ Take smoking for example, or not wearing seatbelts. At one time those “traditions” were believed to be safe. Obviously these are more extreme, yet all of them yield a danger. 

I believe certain roads need to be closed off to prevent danger and kids younger than 13 should only be able to receive candy when their parents are with them. Also, children and parents need to know the location of any sex offenders living in their neighborhoods. This information is readily available online at the Missouri Sex Offender Registry https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/. Missouri law requires registered sex offenders to stay inside their homes between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 10:30 pm. with all exterior lighting turned off. They must also post signs on their door stating that no candy will be available to trick-or-treaters at their home. To conclude, I don’t believe Halloween should be canceled, however, it should be held more in check.