Teens can't trick-or-treat in this Illinois town
Categories: Teens & tweens, Holidays
A few weeks ago, Jennifer asked the question: How old is too old for trick-or-treating? Most of the commenters on that post thought that kids should be able to trick-or-treat as long as they want, even well into their high school years.But in Belleville, Illinois, kids in high school might want to find other plans for the night. The town recently passed an ordinance that bans kids from ninth grade and up from trick-or-treating, unless they're escorting younger siblings. Parents of children who break the rule will be fined $25.
At first glance, this seems heavy-handed. After all, I'd rather see kids out grubbing for candy than partying on Halloween. It doesn't bother me to give a teenager a piece of candy any more than it does to give one to an adult who's trick-or-treating with a baby who's far too young to eat it. But Belleville's mayor says the ordinance was passed to stop teens from ringing doorbells past nine o'clock, a practice that scared local senior citizens.
So teens, take notice. If you want to keep your trick-or-treating rights, follow the rules: If the porch light is off, walk on by and resist the urge to "trick" someone who doesn't want to give you a treat.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
nicole 10-26-2008 @ 2:05PM
This I can understand about getting scarred but come on pass a law thats so no trick or treating after 9pm for all treaters.
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Rosa 10-27-2008 @ 5:16PM
Is it bad that I live in this city and I have never even heard of this law? I can see the argument, but it's still a little strange.
David 10-26-2008 @ 3:26PM
I can see both points of view. I think teens should be able to trick or treat if they follow the rules. Any kids ringing door bells to houses without light or clearly after the allowed time and also any teenage candy thief (parents since children are minors) should be fined. They should think first; why make a law just to make it? This might reduce crazy teen parties and just trick or treat instead.
How can you tell if a person dressed up is in 8th or 9th grade? Some older people look younger and vice versa; and with costumes who knows? Are cops going to randomly be checking school IDs? I think this is going a little too far and ruins the spirit of Halloween. Leave it to the government to ruin anything and everything they want; and I lean left (democratic).
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rwmflunkie08 10-26-2008 @ 10:21PM
It all comes down to that old belief: the bad ones ruin it for the rest or them. There is nothing wrong with teens trick or treating, but we all know that some teens just want to be punks and nowadays these kids are doing some really terrible pranks that if not downright evil, are on the verge of being so. So I understand why they are trying to cut down on it. It is a damn if you do damn if you dont kind of thing.
Celia 10-27-2008 @ 12:21AM
There are ways to accomodate trick or treaters and make it fun for everyone. It is called joining the fun. We have a nieghborhood where the homeowners decorate the whole place. It is elaborate and wonderful and they have as much fun as the kids. Everyone drives over there and trick or treats util 11:00. The city police bring light sticks for everyone so all are safe and easily seen in the dark. The police patrol the whole neighborhood until it is time to leave. This goes on from about 5:00 until 11:00. The kids have a safe and wonderful time and the adults and homewoners are respected and also have a good time. When there is a dark hours the trick or treaters just pass by and to on to another house. It is a community working together to insure that all have a g reat holiday .
We need more of this in the world. This same neighborhood and it includes several streets, also decorates for Christmas and cars drive up and down the streets. It is a wonderful atmosphere.
Samantha 10-27-2008 @ 3:30AM
I too can see both sides, but it seems to me that this is a bit too far. It seems to me like there is a better way to go about it. Perhaps just simply saying that you cannot trick-or-treat at a home with no light on? Which is a main indicator of a Halloween friendly home. If a home doesnt have a front light that works, there are plenty of other ways to show you are up for the treating, like lit jack-o-lanterns. Putting an age ban on trick-or-treating is pointless. Everyone likes to act like a kid sometimes, for some its the only like keeping us sane. Reliving your childhood as a teen is part of being a teen. When you are a kid, you want to be big and grown-up, and when you are grown-up you want to be a kid. Its just part of life.
John 10-27-2008 @ 9:09PM
I live in Belleville. This is the first I've heard of this. Our government here is all Democrats.
Jolis 10-26-2008 @ 10:00PM
I stared getting bored with trick or treating when I was 12. Even when friends dragged me along I could care less. If you really want candy so badly, go out and buy a bag. Besides that, most kids don't even dress up for halloween anymore. They put on a mask and that's it. I know a lot of kids who terrorize other trick or treaters and steal their candy.
In all honesty I much prefer the tradition of the actual holiday anyway, which has been far too lost. Sure there are different stories, but the holidays are slowly turning towards nothing but money, candy, and cheap decorations. It makes me sad.
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o wise one 10-26-2008 @ 10:10PM
honestly people would you rather give a teen some candy or have him egg your house your choice.
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Ed Baggett 10-26-2008 @ 10:11PM
When I was a young boy in Columbia,SC in the 1940's, & 1950's
It was very customary for kids to roam the neighborhoods on halloween actually doing the "tricking" (trick or treat). Some of the common tricks were: lighting a paper full of dog mess,& throw on the porch, putting cherry bombs in mail boxes, papering the trees,
egging cars, etc. someone threw a cherry bomb from a car once &
bounced off my leg.."bang"!!! We didn't hurt anyone or kill a cat or any thing like today..Oh for the good-old days !!!
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JOELIE 10-26-2008 @ 10:16PM
Duhhhhh! Why don't they just make a 9PM curfew for the trick or treaters instead of age discrimination? Question authority PLEASE!
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ladyshooter 10-26-2008 @ 10:29PM
God that is stupid, Im 39 and I went Trick or Treats until I was 21 geez I even went as an Illinois State Trooper that yr. Got a lot of candy and some guy even gave me 20 bucks because he was actually scared I was going to bust him for something. As long as you have the Halloween spirit you should be able to trick or treat.
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Gayle Fargort 10-27-2008 @ 12:12AM
Trick or Treat should be banned altogether. The only way it should be done is just on the street where the kids live. We've had kids from 30 miles away which I think is not acceptable!
WRDawn 10-26-2008 @ 10:36PM
Well GEEZE! I trick or treated when I was in COLLEGE! Dressed up with friends and we did it to get candy to eat to stay up late studying. None of us had a lot of money, and our folks were just barely able to put us into college, so being able to get a lot of candy was really helpful. We were polite, followed the rules, and did not ring doorbells after the treating time was over. Halloween is supposed to be FUN for everyone, and I see no harm with older kids being able to trick or treat. As for his comment that some kids scared senior citizens by ringing their doorbell after 9 at night, that is unfortunate but I cannot believe it was a huge number of seniors who were affected... so rather than punish EVERYONE for what a FEW STUPID TEENS did to seniors, why not just increase patrols around the areas where the seniors live??? The damn government is tooooo restrictive... HALLOWEEN is a fun holiday... one of my favorites, so please stop spoiling it with stupid rules!!!
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stephanie 10-26-2008 @ 10:41PM
this is so stupid. thats not gonna stop teens from trick or treating. im 18 and in college and im planning on trick or treating this year. call me immature, childish, i really do not give a crap. ill be having fun that night getting free candy and dressing up like im crazy. thats what the holiday is about nowadays anyway. let the kids have their fun. and what about the well-behaved teens that go trick or treating to go trick or treating? you're gonna punish them bc senior citizens like to complain? why not just set a curfew? thats what our town does and anyone whos out past that time gets picked up by the cops. dont set an age limit, thats just stupid. this country gets more effed up every day...
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Superdad 10-26-2008 @ 10:41PM
Oh brother, usually dumb ordinances come from California, guess this town was disparate for the coveted "We have nothing better to do, so lets mess with people" trophy
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Foster Mom 2 10-26-2008 @ 10:42PM
I remember back in the 60's when I was growing up that, we trick or treated (without any tricks if no treat) until 7th grade. We even feared incase anyother student saw us if we went for an hour just to get treats back then (our parents NEVER bought candy home) so my older sister insisted that my twin brother and I go trick or treating for awhile to bring candy back for the 3 of us. I was a Freshman at that time and really dreaded "getting caught" by another kid in school but we went since we were not given candy at home.
I do prefer teens had something their age to do since they are the ones prone to do a nasty trick if not given candy. It is for the young children to enjoy and they are in at a decent time and then people can be done passing it out too. Teens are at the age to group up and can get into trouble but towns should supply a halloween dress up dance and treats there for them.
People now bring candy and snacks home so trick or treating for it isn't as exciting for the older kids since the young ones like to dress for it and the older kids do not.
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KaityLuvv 10-27-2008 @ 4:28PM
Umm, yeah, that's not true about teens not liking to dress up. I'm thirteen and I'm going as Tinkerbell this year. My friends are going as
1) a ladybug
2) a drowned sailor
3) an evil doll and
4) a Greek Goddess
We have a blast trick or treating every year, so don't take away our fun!
chewyisdabomb 10-26-2008 @ 10:44PM
It's Halloween, Halloween is for everybody! It does not matter, it keeps them from being in trouble going to parties or something like that! I love giving candy out to young and old, thier having fun and enjoying the holiday! Do they want trouble with these teens? It's just all STUPID!!!!!
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Pam in Maryland 10-26-2008 @ 10:56PM
I agree with this one for a change. It is shocking to see how many people with infants who don't even have teeth are out there trick or treeting. I'd rather give to a teenager. Now get real people, who's really eating that candy, huh! Now personally I have stopped participating in this activity. I'm a single woman who just keeps her porch light off that night. The majority of kids stay anyway in this horrible development that went up on a farm outside my little town that we locals call vinyl city. It's close to a 1,000 homes and if they can't get enough candy there too bad. Besides, it's become the trend that people that van loads of kids are brought in from all over the county. In fact,all the towns in my county had to get together and make trick or treating one night only over the whole county to stop this practice. Hundreds of additional kids would show up at your door from a 25 mile radius as they spent an entire week trick or treating every night. Can't figure out what they did with all that candy. Maybe they used it for Christmas gifts. 12 years ago I was so excited to prepare for trick or treaters as I had moved into my new house. I bought little treat bags, filled each with several pieces of candy and that end of the night totalled up that I had spent over $100 dollars. At that time that was about twice my electric bill. I said I would never do that again. Each year I cut back to finally several years ago stopped it all together. It's a very expensive thing if you really do it up. For the most part in my town it's considered a baby thing to go out at night so most teens don't go. We have haunted houses and corn mazes and other things the teens prefer to do. This town would be wise to come up with an alternative for the teens otherwise they're going to end up with more tricking going on then they might expect.
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