Name

Mr.Smith

Junior ELA

7 November 2023

Hazards of Trick or Treating

With all the fun that Halloween has to offer, the real importance of this holiday lies

within ensuring children's safety during trick or treating. Halloween is a holiday held on October

31st that allows people of all ages to celebrate the coming end of autumn with a variety of

activities like wearing costumes and carving jack o'lanterns. In contrast to those activities that

create zero risk for a community the child-oriented tradition of trick or treating seems to deviate

from the norm. Although Halloween provides a festive environment for kids to socialize and

dress as their favorite characters, the act of trick or treating ruins the holiday by putting kids in

positions that expose them to danger.

Most would assume that it's common knowledge not to drive recklessly through crowded

neighborhoods, especially on halloween, but the heightened amount of annual accidents suggests

otherwise. Every year there is a noticeable spike in vehicle related accidents on the night of

halloween, one study released by John A. Staples from Jama Pediatrics in 2018 found that in the

past 10 years more child pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes that happened on

Halloween than on any other date. This study also stated that the risk of being killed by a motor

vehicle for child pedestrians aged 4 to 8 years is ten times higher on Halloween. Putting children

in a position where they'll have the freedom to run across streets from house to house in the dark

even with the supervision of adults heightens the risk of accidents on halloween even if they're

not purposeful. In addition to those circumstances drivers on halloween are most likely driving to
or from parties where they are likely under the influence. According to Research from the

NHTSA, 43% of all motor vehicle fatalities on Halloween were due to drunk driving and that

“Between 2015 and 2019, 126 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes on Halloween

night”(The Rother Firm). The same source goes on to say that “Even pedestrians aren't safe, with

23% of all pedestrian fatalities occurring on Halloween night”(The Rother Firm). Trick or

treating as an activity occurs at night so it automatically exposes children to drivers who are

often under the influence and have low visibility.

Though inserting razor blades and rat poison into childrens candy are almost essentially

halloween myths, there's been multiple reported cases of adults drugging trick or treaters candy

in recent years. There's been multiple accounts of laced candy being administered to children on

halloween but primarily during trick or treating. In a recent occurrence a child had become

lethargic and displayed dilated pupils, soon after officers came to check through this trick or

treaters candy. The station came across “An unwrapped red gummy type candy”(Service,

Arizona Daily Independent News) was located in one of the buckets. The officers stated that

“This piece of candy resembles a red fish type of chewable gummy that is known to be laced

with Tetrahydrocannabinol, otherwise known as THC”(Service, Arizona Daily Independent

News). Another incident occurred after a student at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in

California ate a fruit chew containing THC at a school Halloween event. Two families at this

PTA halloween event “found cannabis-infused fruit chews in their student's candy”(J.R. Stone).

Infusing candies with substances that adults know children will consume and are directly

distributed to them is a prime example of one of the dangerous situations trick or treating puts

children in. These incidents all highlight the dangers of trick or treating but simply further the

importance of children being cautious on halloween.

 Some may say trick or treating exposes kids to dangerous situations due reckless drivers

and naive children but the dangers like “poisoned candy” have been proven to be myths. The

legends of strangers tampering with childrens candy has been thoroughly debunked,

“"This is absolutely a legend," said Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal

justice at the University of Delaware, who has studied contaminated candy since the

1980s``''(Kline). Though these cases of families finding razor blades, needles, or sorts of

piosons inside their children's candy tend to be hoaxes, the risk of children consuming drugged

candy on halloween isn't. Furthermore, Halloween threats surrounding children like sex

offenders, kidnappings, and child sacrifices are just as realistic as strangers inserting razor blades

into candy. according to statistics from the California department of justice “There is no evidence

that offenders target kids more on Halloween than on other days' '(Horn). Despite the fact that

these threats are almost fully fabricated the real dangers of Halloween still exist through

contaminated candy and driving under the influence. Rumors referring to children being hurt by

kidnappers or consuming poisoned candy during trick or treating shouldn't be the real fear during

halloween, though these alleged issues do promote the actual dangers of halloween. Unlike

poisoned candy, the act of checking a child's candy for discoloration or pinholes in case of drugs

is a realistic fear that should be considered.

Halloween can pose multiple safety hazards due to low visibility, vehicle accidents and

the possible exposure to tampered with candy. Although the fatality of incidents like these seem

to be low, factors like these continue to increase the risk a child is at whilst trick or treating.

These factors highlight the importance of parental supervision while trick or treating and the

overall importance of safety precautions regarding children on the night of halloween.

 Works Cited

Firm, The Roth. “The Scary Reality of Drunk Driving on Halloween.” The Roth Firm, LLC, 2

Oct. 2023,

Horn, Charisse Van. “Trick or Treat Dangers: Are Sex Offenders, Kidnappings, and Child

Sacrifices Real Halloween Threats?” The Inquisitr, 29 Oct. 2015,

John A. Staples, MD. “Pedestrian Fatalities Associated with Halloween in the United States.”

JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Network, 1 Jan. 2019,

Kline, Kaity. “Why the Urban Legend of Contaminated Halloween Candy Won’t Disappear.”

NPR, NPR, 31 Oct. 2023,

Service, Arizona Daily Independent News. “Yuma Child Taken to Hospital on Halloween after

Eating THC-Laced Candy.” Arizona Daily Independent, 4 Nov. 2019,

Stone, J.R. “6 Families Found Cannabis Candy after East Bay School Event; Sick Student Ok:

SuperintendentJJ.” ABC7 San Francisco, 31 Oct. 2023,

 H Argument Essay Rubric

Skill Not Yet Foundational Proficient Advanced

Identifies a basic claim Appears in first Thesis establishes a

Thesis paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a Establishes

topic and a claim counter-argument in
claim

Topic sentences Topic sentences have Topic sentences have

Claims/Reasons contain basic claims clear and distinct clear and distinct
claims that relate to claims that relate to
the thesis the thesis and make
nuanced points that
consider alternate
perspectives or
counterarguments

Uses some brief Uses multiple pieces Uses a variety of

Evidence examples, or one of evidence (personal evidence (see
example, to support experience, anecdotes, previous column) that
each claim; may all be survey, research etc.) supports each claim;
personal experience to support each claim different types of
evidence in each body
paragraph

Use of reliable outside

sources

Brief explanation of Explains how Provides strong

Analysis how evidence evidence supports explanations of how
supports topic topic sentence/claim evidence supports
sentence of individual of individual topic sentence and the
paragraphs paragraphs and the thesis while also
thesis considering
counterarguments
Includes at least 2
concessions in body Seamlessly mentions
paragraphs concession, and offers
response/rebuttal

Counter- Makes some mention Structure Well-structured and

Argument of opposing argument counter-argument effective
 which: counter-argument
Mentions the which:
opposing argument, Establishes an aspect
some mention of how of the opposing
opposing argument argument, clearly and
may be disproven logically disproves the
argument
Some elements missing Heading is correctly No errors in MLA
MLA Format or some errors in MLA formatted format
format
Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted (if
sources are used)

Works Cited format:

hanging indent,
double-spaced,
alphabetized, starts on
a new page (if sources
are used)

Works Cited: each

source entry is in
correct MLA format (if
sources are used)
Shows evidence of Quotes are correctly Quotes are correctly
Conventions basic proofreading integrated most of the integrated
time (if sources are
used) Shows evidence of
careful proofreading
Follows essay
organization (claims in Includes fluid
topic sentence; transitions between
evidence; analysis; ideas
concluding sentences)
Eliminates wordiness
Shows evidence of
proofreading
 Utilizes mostly simple Some varied sentence Consistently varied
Fluency sentence structures structures sentence structures

Some use of advanced Advanced use of

vocabulary vocabulary; including
use of active verbs