Yes

By. Nami G. ‘28

As the autumn sky begins to darken and street lights flicker off, children change into costumes and snatch pillowcases that will be filled with candy in only a few hours’ time. At night, millions of Americans take to the street to participate in this national holiday.

Originally started as a religious holiday where people wore costumes to scare off ghosts, Halloween is now a national holiday where everyone can celebrate autumn and give themselves a scare — including high schoolers. Though many kids cease to participate in the holiday activities after high school, some still do, and their age should not exclude them from the festive activities.

Many high schoolers enjoy celebrating Halloween simply because they enjoy the candy or like to express themselves through costumes. Meanwhile, since adults always claim that teenagers are constantly on their phones, they should be appreciative if their teenage kid wants to participate in the festivities.

Though teenagers may be known to push past kids for candy, many are also aware of the space around them and should not be socially judged for trick-or-treating despite the offenses of others in their age bracket. And even if teenagers have grown notorious for stealing the entire bowl of candy, we shouldn’t ignore that many younger kids do too — such as in a viral Twitter video of a ten-year-old pouring the entire bowl of candy into his backpack and proceeding to flip off the Ring camera that was recording him. This shows that misdemeanors are certainly not exclusive to high school. If one doesn’t want to include high schoolers because of their petty crimes, then they might as well cancel the entire holiday.

Another reason that a teenager may want to participate in Halloween is their family. Entire families often go trick or treating, and many younger siblings want to participate with their older loved ones. They should be able to have fun without their family being judged because one of the participants is a little older.

Additionally, many Halloween decorations are often scary and can frighten younger ones especially the elaborate haunted mazes that many of my neighbors set up in front of their houses. When I was younger, I could attest to me and my friends being afraid of some decorations on our street and were afraid to get candy from those houses. Meanwhile, teenagers would be the ones mainly gathering candy from those scarier locations, showing that without teenagers those houses wouldn’t be able to pass out the candy they had bought.

Most importantly, Halloween is a time of fun that everyone should participate in. If a high schooler genuinely wants to participate in the festive activities, it’s unfair for them not to participate simply because of their age.

No

By. Natalie G. ’28

As Halloween rolls around the corner, households all around the nation are preparing colorful decorations, an assorted supply of costumes, and most importantly, fistfuls of candy for kids to enjoy. The key word? Kids.

As high schoolers grow older, it’s only natural for them to step aside and let the new generation of kids have their fun. However, when teenagers don’t do this, it leads to an exhausting, unfulfilling night for younger kids.

We know that high schoolers trickor-treat for the candy (who doesn’t?), but the problem isn’t why they trickor-treat, it’s how. High schoolers tower above younger kids, and on a dark, chilly autumn night, younger kids usually get pushed aside and completely disregarded. If such a misdemeanor happens, Halloween could become a trauma-filled day, remembered not for its joyful moments but for the rudeness of a group of rambunctious high schoolers.

Another reason why high schoolers should not trick-or-treat is because of limited resources. On this special day, younger and less-experienced kids should take priority for treat-receiving, but how can this happen if there’s none left to distribute? After teenagers and their voracious appetite for sugar finish rampaging through a neighborhood, many people have reported whole boxes of candy going missing. Camera footage reveals high schoolers snatching up fistfuls of candy, not considering anybody else. Even without hoarding, older kids still take a significant amount of sweet treats from every home, eventually depleting the small supply that wasn’t even meant for them anyway! Although high schoolers aren’t the only people who misbehave on Halloween night, because of their lack of supervision, the majority of people committing such offenses fall in that age bracket. These unfortunate incidents could decrease significantly if high schoolers stopped trick-or-treating.

Finally, high schoolers contribute negatively to the Halloween spirit. It gets to the point that some don’t even dress up when making their rounds in the street, completely negating a huge part of the holiday spirit. Others wear hyperrealistic, gory, or otherworldly terrifying costumes that scare the living hell out of young kids. I have to say, sending children crying back to their homes is not the ideal way to end the day.

Instead of spending one more year trick-or-treating (after already doing so for a decade), high schoolers should be considerate to their younger counterparts, and let them enjoy trick-or-treating on their own like they themselves once did. Extending this courtesy to younger kids will continue this fun tradition for generations to come.