YES: Once you reach high school, it is no longer acceptable to beg for candy

Getting dressed up in costumes. Aimlessly wandering around a neighborhood. Begging for candy.

All characteristics of a fun-filled Halloween night….for an elementary child. Once you reach high school all the rules change. You can no longer run around screaming with your friends, because people assume you’re actually in danger. You can no longer randomly sit down in places or ride in grocery carts because it is assumed you need medical help or have a disability. The rules change, and the world’s view on you changes, so shouldn’t the traditions too?

We are now expected to act as adults in public, deal with our own affairs, and be responsible for our actions. So than how is it acceptable for us to follow a tradition that was created for children? We are now old enough that it isn’t considered a fun game, begging for candy from total strangers. What have you done to earn candy?

We have reached the age where it becomes our responsibility to entertain younger kids and give candy to them, not to continue to take from society. If we are supposed to be becoming adults, why is it that it is acceptable to hold on to childish antics?

Proponents of teen trick-or-treating argue that teens might turn to inappropriate or illegal activities if they don’t trick-or-treat. However, people fail to realize that teens who do that were probably going to do it anyway.

Teens that simply go out for the candy would probably make everyone else feel more comfortable if they just bought their own and stayed with friends instead of roaming the streets. Not to mention, the inherent dangers of young adults roaming the street late at night; just because we find ourselves in a rural suburb, doesn’t mean that life’s dangers shy away from us. Young children have chaperones, but teens simply roam around with nobody keeping track of them.

We are becoming adults and must deal with the world’s problems, not beg for candy and scare small kids by roaming the streets late at night. 

NO: Age shouldn’t affect your right to dress up and celebrate Halloween

It doesn’t matter how old you are, you never outgrow going out and trick-or-treating for Halloween. Even as high school students, you should be able to get together with a group of friends and go collect free candy.

Trick-or-treating is a fundamental way to not only celebrate the holiday, but to connect to your childhood. If it is acceptable for young children to go trick-or-treating, what makes it different for teenagers? We are still technically children. Who’s to say that a pre-teen can be given candy, but one year later they can’t go and enjoy celebrating the night? If it becomes unacceptable for teenagers to trick-or-treat then they will be forced to find other, maybe not so legal, forms of entertainment.

There is virtually no difference between an eighth grader and a freshman. Yet it is becoming less socially acceptable to trick-or-treat for teenagers in high school to trick-or-treat. High school has become the end of being able to enjoy yourself, but high school students are still treated without the respect of being recognized as an adult.

As a child, dressing up for Halloween was the best part of the holiday. You plan for weeks about what you are going to wear to impress the neighborhood.

If you no longer trick-or-treat there is no reason to dress up and thus no way to express yourself. Suddenly, Halloween has become just another night watching television or playing video games. The creativity has been stripped from the holiday and teenagers no longer have an outlet to express themselves or emulate their heroes.

Maybe Halloween isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean other teenagers shouldn’t be able to enjoy themselves. There is no need to frown upon teens that are able to loosen up and enjoy themselves.

You are only in high school once, enjoy yourself. You shouldn’t be afraid to dress as whatever you want to be and go out among the other kids, of all ages, and trick-or-treat.