Opinion

If you’re reading this as a Heritage student, you’re probably too old for trick-or-treating. Yes, I realize that this may be a cold, hard truth, but it’s a truth you must face. Halloween is probably the best holiday of the year, and it definitely sucks growing up and realizing you won’t be getting free candy anymore. Still, there’s no excuse for being older than 12 and trick-or-treating.
Being a kid on Halloween is awesome. You can to be someone else for the night and beg people for candy in a socially acceptable way. It’s great. But as you get older, people are less willing to give candy to a 15-year old wearing a Snooki costume (real original). This thing is, when you’re older and trick-or-treat, you’re taking away candy meant for little kids. You’re practically adults, so I’m sure you can buy your own candy by now.
In a handful of cities, like Belleville, Illinois and Newport News, Virginia, trick-or-treating is actually illegal for anyone over twelve. I’m not sure of the punishment for violators, but I’m sure it at least involves a few years in prison. If you can’t face the time, don’t do the crime. So stop trick-or-treating, grow up and buy your own candy. Go to haunted house or a corn maze, or just pass out candy; you’ll have more fun than if you were dressed in an itchy costume, wandering around in the cold.
Even if you’re too old to trick-or-treat, you can always still dress up, there’s no rule against it. Still, would it kill most of you to try harder with costumes? I’ve seen enough girls dressed as Jersey Shore cast members and as the ugly Kardashian sister to last a lifetime. Guys too; you can’t just wear a tank top and call yourself the Situation or throw on a football jersey. Be creative. It’s the one time a year it’s alright to dress up ridiculously, so go all out, even if you can’t trick-or-treat.

– Written by Bevin Madden

Many people will argue that trick-or treating teenagers is ridiculous. Well, I disagree.
Student Kyler Quinn-McCaslin says, “It’s fun, especially when adults get mad at you.” Most teenagers would agree. Teenagers have a tendency to try to get into trouble. Along with trick-or-treating, they also play pranks, and attend parties for Halloween.
I think when adults say teenagers shouldn’t be able to go trick or treating, they don’t know how this could affect them. When adults refuse to hand out candy to teenagers it can result in rebellion, tee-peeing or egging their house or even going as far as to key their car. Which, I think might be over dramatic but they deserve it. Teenagers should be able to continue the tradition of trick-or-treat! No one is too old for candy!
Halloween is such a fun holiday; it’s one of my favorites. It’s an opportunity for people to dress up and be whoever they want to be. It’s an excuse to play pretend without being a weirdo! Parents say you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up, but let’s be honest, not everyone can be the president. Except on Halloween! It’s a chance for kids to choose to be whatever they want! Well, except it may cause a brawl if two people have the same costume.
When you’re older, no one is going to give you Halloween candy, but as a teenager you can still get away with it, so why not enjoy it while you can!
Playing pranks on Halloween is super fun, and trick-or-treating is a great way to scare people. Wear a scary costume and go around with your friends, you get a laugh and so do the people around you.
If you ask around, most teenagers say they are still going trick-or-treating, so when people say they shouldn’t be allowed, they are ruining most teenagers’ plans and that isn’t fair. Plus, teenagers are probably going to do it anyway.
So let’s review, free candy, dressing up weird, being with your friends, scaring people, why wouldn’t you go? Oh and have you ever seen an elder person when they are angry? It’s quite funny and they usually are not happy with teenagers trick-or-treating. So you get a laugh too! It’s like Christmas in October!
My point being that Halloween is outrageously fun, keep teenagers with a young spirit out of trouble, you get free candy and can dress up however you want. Trick-or-treating as a teen is the best way to spend your Halloween!

– Written by Marisa Love

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. These beliefs are assumptions based on images, or simply names. Stereotypes can be found everywhere, and high school is no exception.

From a young age, American children are told that the “All-American girl” is comparable to Barbie, or Marilyn Monroe. That Africa looks like it does in The Lion King and on commercials illustrated by starving children.
Movies tell us that people with glasses are smart, blondes are dumb, and teens with piercings are rebels. Movies embrace many stereotypes, which is fine, but the problem begins when the generalizations leave the theater.
“All people see when they think of Africa is starving children, because that is what all those commercials show… but there is so much more to Kenya than what the TV shows,” said senior Tim Nakhisa.
Curious to see if this was true, a random survey was conducted on fifty Heritage seniors. After questioning the students about how they imagined Africa, a whopping thirty-eight said that when they envision Africa they think of “starving children.”
Clearly there are starving adults in Africa, but everyone only mentioned the children. A few even admitted to picturing Africa exactly like it was in The Lion King. Clearly Heritage is not immune to assumptions.
Many people have begun to use stereotypes as a reason to ignore or even bully others. When one looks at another through these unoriginal molds, they feel as if they already know who that person is. Sixty-four percent of the interviewed seniors felt as though they had been unfairly stereotyped.
One student wrote, “I like to wear black, and people often ask me if I’m depressed. No one wants to hang out with a girl who is sad… even though I’m not.”
Is this okay? Is it alright for us to alienate each other due to an assumption?

One way we can fight stereotypes is by allowing ourselves to be open-minded and get to know someone before jumping to conclusions. One of the best ways to do this is by communicating with different social groups, and getting to know them personally, rather than judging them from the outside.
The survey was only conducted on a small percent of the school, and over half of them had experienced being categorized. Many said they knew that some stereotypes are meant as jokes, but they still hurt.
It isn’t fair to let these fixed views from meeting new people, nor to deny a person the chance to be independent of the conventional classification placed upon them. Forty-eight of the seniors said the reason bullying fueled by stereotypes continues is due to fear.
“Fear of standing out, fear of them saying ‘I can’t believe you took that seriously’. Or fear of them turning on them,” said one senior.
Imagine a Heritage in which we didn’t assume that someone was smart based on their race, or dumb based on their hair color. Now is the time we stop being afraid. Now the time is for students to be part of the solution and stop stereotyping.

-Written by Cheyenne Sutcliffe & Ashley Davis