On the news that Bobtown, Pennsylvania has outlawed Hallowe'en to "keep kids safe," Lenore "Free Range Kids" Skenazy points out that there has never been a single substantiated incident of a kid being sickened, hurt or killed by doctored candy handed out during trick-or-treating in the history of America.
Ever.
Was there ever really a rash of candy killings? Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, took it upon himself to find out. He studied crime reports from Halloween dating back as far as 1958, and guess exactly how many kids he found poisoned by a stranger's candy?
A hundred and five? A dozen? Well, one, at least?
"The bottom line is that I cannot find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously hurt by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating," says the professor. The fear is completely unfounded.
Goodbye Halloween, Hello "Safety"
(Image: Me as a pirate, Hallowe'en 1975, Toronto, Canada -- photo by Gordon Doctorow)
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I feel sooo lied to.
Untold millions of kids have been kidnapped, killed by razor blade'd apples, or kidnapped and turned into satinists, but the greedy and powerful Halloween candy industry has squelched coverage of these atrocities.
If you ask the police about them, they'll deny it. "Big Treat" has gotten to them, too!
No one's proactive anymore. If you want to cancel a holiday because of children being harmed by candy, if there are no data, you must make some.
Even the Nazis knew you have to set fire to the Reichstag yourself if the commies won't do it for you.
This reminds me of the stupid tracts that my evangelist mother gave me when I was a kid to scare me into thinking that modern day witches were putting razor blades and drugs in Halloween candy.
In fact, I found those old tracts online: http://jackchick.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/chick-tract-review-the-trick/
Creepy as hell (pun intended). They're even creepier when this article reveals that it was all just fear-mongering.
But wait - my mother's next-door-neighbor's Cousin Ariadne knows a woman whose son's colleague's daughter totally got an apple with a razor blade in it, in 1979.
Doesn't that count for anything - and won't anybody think of the CHILDREN?
That poor little girl, by the way, subsequently died in a tragic Pop Rocks explosion.
Well, hey, I received an apple with a razor blade in it back in 1970 in West LA, though I would never have eaten an apple. Halloween was all about getting the type of sweets denied me otherwise.
Actually, and sadly, there is at least one death. Timothy Mark O'Bryan died from a cyanide poisoned Pixie Stix he got trick or treating.
Even more frightening, the candy came from his father, who gave out other poisoned Pixie Stix in order to cover his tracks. Thankfully none of this candy was consumed.
Happened in Houston, 1974.
Having read the original newspaper article, I'm not sure that it's the kids' safety they're worried about. "He says there's been a lot of break-ins lately and that older people in Bobtown were scared." Got any statistics about how there have never actually been any trick-or-treat-related cases of petty vandalism on Hallowe'en?
The article ends with a quote from the city council about frightened seniors. It's not clear to me whether this is a measure to keep kids safe from poisoned treats or an attempt to set a curfew for prankster teens.
Dwiff, the sole harm from that incident came not from trick-or-treating but from candy given by a homicidal parent.
The great thing about the "just one child" argument is that there need never have been a threat, you just have to come up with a scenario where your kooky idea might save "just one child" and anyone who argues with you is automatically deemed to be in favour of killing kids.
@jere7my- Seems strange they'd worry. It's not like many (any?) kids follow through on the implied threat in "Trick or Treat".
"No treats? Time for some tricks, then."
Another phrase gone empty.
cory, are you making finger devils horns in that pic? cute!
oh that's just great, now dozens of kids are doomed to die this coming Halloween as kooks rush to be the first to top a kid with tainted candy.
See also: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/halloween/halloween.asp
If your kid comes home with one of those little stamps with Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice on it, trade a Milky Way bar for it. You'll both come out the winner.
I remember the Ronald Clark O'Bryan case. The stories about razor blades in apple definitely predated that incident, and it totally killed trick-or-treating for a couple decades.
These stories didn't stop me gathering bags full of candy (to be stolen by my dogs), but did make us all keep our eyes open for weirdos and creeps. Silly to assume they're not out there. We took a quick look at apples, then threw them away. Who wants?!
No - the danger lies in apple bobbing. Now THAT's something the flu loves!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathankoren/1332801301/
I would hate for my kid to become a "satinist". All that shiny fabric, so tacky.
Reminds me a little of Halloween 2001. There were some parents who wouldn't let their kids go trick-or-treating because they were afraid of terrorists. Hey, more candy for the rest of the kids! I even let my kids eat candy unchecked, straight from their goody bags.
Yes, the "Mickey Mouse Acid" scare of the 80's was pretty ridiculous-- what drug dealer is going to give out free LSD to kids? It's not addictive, and more than likely the kid would not enjoy it-- how exactly does that help business? Parents: just because it has a cartoon character on it does not mean it was intended for kids. Anyone remember the "Gorbachev" acid of the late 80's? (What, was that supposed to turn you communist?)
…I got a rock!
Hey, if they stops kids banging on my door, expecting to be paid for dressing up in costume when I have no interest in seeing kids in costume, with a veiled threat of a 'trick' if I don't play along, I'm all in favour of scare stories like this.
Even if this is a complete non-problem, just take your kids to your friends' houses for sweets, leave me out of it.
/grouch
"Keeping kids safe" sounds suspiciously like "keep toilet paper out of trees".
Yeah, the worry-warts and the people who hate the idea of anyone having fun have been trying to kill off Halloween for as long as I've been aware of it (call it 40 years, give or take). I remember as a young teenager being drafted into helping run the Church Halloween Haunted House. The theory being at the time that teens who are in a church trying to be scary aren't up to mischief. It was killed in its 3rd year due to a controversy raised by some old women thought it was Satanic.
Right. Satanic, in a church, run by the minister, his assistant, a bunch of lay ministry, and a few parent volunteers as well as a dozen or so teens. Obviously the old ladies, the ones who also tried to kill the "Children's sermon" portion of the Sunday service("too disruptive", shut down the children's choir (on the basis that it took precious singing time away from the "adult" choir (15 old ladies, a couple of drafted husbands, and one professional hired tenor so they didn't sound like complete crap.)
The Church Haunted House never returned, and my fundie parents decided that I was now "too old" (13?) to go trick or treating, so the holiday lost its appeal early on for me. While I can't say for sure that the reason for the hated was that kids enjoyed it, it smells right, and fits the mindset and behavior I saw.
no self-respecting sucrose-addicted youth would ever eat an apple given to him on halloween.
as for drugs - last time i checked they were rather expensive to be handing out for free.
as for poison - yeah, ok, sure, it COULD happen. but i bet more kids die from falling on sprinkler heads because they can't see out of their dollar store mask.
the law, as its rationalized, is not about keeping kids safe, but keeping them off their lawns.
You're afraid some unruly teens are going to egg your house? Fine. Be afraid, be very afraid. But please don't patronize the rest of us by claiming it's for the good of the children.
These stories were all the rage when I was a kid during the 1960s, and they made my mother nervous enough to restrict how far I wandered. They made me nervous, too. It sounded like an epidemic. Now I find out that I eyeballed all that candy suspiciously for no reason. But that didn't stop me from eating it, natch. Cold War, terrorism, general angst. Isn't it grand how the stories and paranoia continue?
It's a depressing story, but I can't stop giggling to myself at the idea of young Cory as a pirate. It's just so damn appropriate to the life he grew into.
As a nice corrective image of "traditional" Halloween, take at look at the old chestnut "Meet me in Saint Louis" (the musical with Judy Garland) -- a wholesome look at simple American life. Not only are the children out after dark, without any adults, but they build giant bonfires, and coerce the littlest kids (maybe 5 yrs old?) to hurl scavenged wood into it... Oh, and they try to terrorize neighbours too.
Halloween has had all the fun sucked out of it :(
Yeah, but you've seen The Wizard of Oz, right? No parental guidance, lost in a strange land, nearly killed at every turn, even does drugs at one point (poppies!)...She's lucky she made it home alive!
Oh, wait. That was all a dream.
Nevermind!
Anyway, I just heard that kids are turning into knife-wielding thugs these days. They can take care of themselves.
@Cory - "Dwiff, the sole harm from that incident came not from trick-or-treating but from candy given by a homicidal parent."
Not to quibble, but : Yes. A homicidal parent who gave it to children while they were trick or treating.
nah, looks like a shaka sign to me, dude.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_sign
So, what's the legal penality for ignoring the silly law made my idiots, and doing all the usual halloween stuff anyways?
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an Arrrgh.
@Cory - "Dwiff, the sole harm from that incident came not from trick-or-treating but from candy given by a homicidal parent."
To actually quibble, he also gave out poisoned candy to other kids, but luckily none seem to have eaten it.
That isn't to say that Halloween is dangerous; it's not. The vast majority of people are good people on whom you can count. However, what I think is really insidious is how we've all been convinced that people we don't know are all likely pedophiles and child-eaters, which isolates us and our children from society, which, I suspect, makes people with such antisocial tendencies more likely to act upon them.
When we all trust each other, we have to watch each others' backs, and we all benefit. When we refuse to do that, we all suffer.
Glad to see this here. Lenore has lots more similarly brainless or incidences of groundless fearmongering related to kids on her website.