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Bridget Lee, a 12-year-old\u00a0from Lexington, is excited about dressing up as an albino werewolf to go trick-or-treating with friends on Halloween. But if she lived in Bishopville, South Carolina, and scattered communities across the country, it would be her last Halloween to legally trick-or-treat.<\/p>\n
Cities across the U.S. have cracked down on teenage trick-or-treating and have put age restrictions on who can participate in the door-to-door Halloween activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s not fair because if you\u2019re older than 12 and want to trick-or-treat, you can\u2019t,\u201d Bridget, a 7th grader, said. \u201cThere should be laws about smashing pumpkins, not age ones.”<\/p>\n
Teenagers in Chesapeake, Virginia, could face not-so-sweet treats that include fines up to $100 and up to six months in jail if they violate the ordinances, which also establish a 6-8 p.m. trick-or-treat time.\u00a0Teens in other Virginia localities, including \u00a0Newport News and Norfolk, could face lesser misdemeanor charges if found going door-to-door in search of candy. Older children are allowed to accompany younger siblings.<\/p>\n
In South Carolina,\u00a0Bishopville has set age limitations on trick-or-treating for those 12 and under, while Charleston is more lenient at 16 and under but with a curfew of 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
Lee says she\u2019s unsure if she\u2019ll go trick-or-treating next year, but she already knows a friend who is planning to trick-or-treat when she turns 13.<\/p>\n
Bridget’s mother, Amber Lee, says trick-or-treating is a social event around their neighborhood and includes all ages. Although she agrees with a curfew for Halloween night, she\u2019s less accepting of age restrictions and thinks it would be unfortunate if such regulations were to be introduced in the Midlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a child who is 15 shows up on my doorstep and is being respectful and trick-or-treating with a group of friends, or even by themselves, I\u2019d rather have them doing that than doing some of the other bad choices they could be out making,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
Kaylee Shearer, a 12-year-old \u00a0from Lexington, also plans on trick-or-treating this year as an “identity thief,” but rather than go with a group of friends, she’ll walk her neighborhood with her little brother and mom and dad.<\/p>\n
Like Bridget, Kaylee disagrees with the rules and says that a 13-year-old shouldn\u2019t be paying fines or going to jail yet. However, she does think there are certain exceptions when it comes to older kids bullying and misbehaving on Halloween.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s okay if 16 and 17-year-olds are still trick-or-treating as long as they don\u2019t do weird things, like jump out of bushes and scare the crap out of kids,\u201d Kaylee said.<\/p>\n
Kaylee’s mother, Lindsay Shearer, says that the age limitations are \u201cridiculous\u201d and trick-or-treating is mostly just \u201charmless fun.\u201d She also thinks that the age restrictions are \u201cincredibly too young\u201d and say a lot about society\u2019s expectations of children nowadays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis day and age, kids are expected to grow up too fast, and they can\u2019t just be kids anymore. When things like this happen at 12, it puts in their head that they\u2019re not kids anymore,\u201d Shearer said. \u201cTo me, it would have nothing to do with age. If they\u2019re just simply trick-or-treating, just wanting to have fun, I\u2019m going to give you some candy and send you on your way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Amber Lee of Lexington enjoys seeing her 12-year-old daughter Bridget trick-or-treat each year. She says that she was never able to go as a child, so she\u2019s glad Bridget gets the opportunity.<\/p>\n
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Bridget Lee is planning on dressing up as an albino werewolf for Halloween. She recently bought a key part of her costume online.<\/p>\n
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Twelve-year-old Kaylee Shearer and her mother Lindsay Shearer say Halloween is a family night. They trick-or-treat together in their Lexington neighborhood.<\/p>\n
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Kaylee Shearer is dressing up as an “identity thief” for Halloween. She says she got a pack of nametags, wrote a name on each one and then stuck them to her to create the costume. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.15″ src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Halloween-Laws-GX1.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s more trick than treat for some teens who want to go door-to-door looking for candy this Halloween.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":13755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[299,301,300],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13698"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13792,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13698\/revisions\/13792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}