Everyone would admit that Halloween is fun. A free supply of sweets and a chance to be creative with your costume, who wouldn’t enjoy this special day of year?
Well it seems that straightforward but unfortunately it isn’t. More than half of teens considered it awkward and embarrassing to go trick or treating when they turned older than 12, this is a shocking statistic as if the youth of today are not going trick or treating what are they actually doing?
Now imagine you are 14 years old, deemed too old for trick or treating but still looking to enjoy your Halloween night but then what can you do?
Well this dilemma is faced by teens in the UK every year but for them there is only one thing they can think to do (or end up doing anyway) and this is scaring people, ruining people’s evenings and just in general being an antisocial mess.
The young yobs favourite thing to do is use fireworks, I managed to get an exclusive interview with one group of teens (pictured left) wearing all white masks to hide their identities. One reported as saying “we use the fireworks to get reactions from people, the more risk involved the more exciting it is!” One of his accomplices informs me how earlier that evening they had placed fireworks under a “Bully van” (police van) and made a quick escape they said the damage was unknown but they could hear the explosion and the screams from 2 roads away.
Looking for some remorse in the boys I asked if they ever felt bad about scaring these people and if they have ever harmed anyone. They told me they try not to get vulnerable people and I was very glad to hear that they wouldn’t dare do anything dangerous to older people or parents with children however unfortunately one year whilst taking part in these dangerous Halloween hijinks they hit over an old lady – they said they couldn’t run back to help as they had to save themselves from trouble.
This is obviously a big problem as the level of danger on such a child friendly night is a shock to see, will this ever stop people going trick or treating? Would it stop you taking your children? No one knows if this is going to get more dangerous as years go on but all we can advise is to stay weary on the spookiest night of the year.
Alfie Lamb, Highams Park School
