Halloween should not be an excuse for lack of judgment

While most Halloween pranks and costumes are in good fun, some clearly go too far.
Editorial

On Halloween it is fun to be scared. In general most pranks and costumes are in good fun. Yet some instances in the last week have shown that some people do not know where to draw the line.

Thursday a woman who brought a toy gun into the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. learned the hard way that sometimes Halloween props can be inappropriate. Her costume, which included a toy gun made out of plastic, caused a stir at one of the building’s security checkpoints when a security officer did not react fast enough and saw her walking off with what he thought was a gun.

This led to a shutdown of the entire building.

While this could be described as a lack of judgment on the woman’s part, other instances of rather extreme Halloween events are not as easily explained as they are more premeditated in nature.

A haunted house in Cape Coral, for instance, promoted its event with the slogan “You will be scared as hell.” What the operators of the house did not tell the visitors was that the church group had started the house with the intent of showing horrific events to teenagers and children as a deterrent that would keep them from “going to hell.”

The idea was clearly taken too far when unsuspecting visitors were shown things such as a video of a woman shooting herself in the head after her husband abused her.

Parents who had taken their children to the event were outraged. One mother who had taken her 9-year-old son said it was one thing to be scared by “goblins and trolls” but to be shown such things as suicide in graphic detail probably caused an “emotional scarring” of her child.

Naturally Halloween is a time when trick-or-treating and pranks are not only common, but popular. Especially in the post 9-11 world, where it could be argued that most news is bad news, Halloween offers a good opportunity to have some good old-fashioned fun. However, this should not be done without considering if the pranks or costumes are appropriate for the venture and the people that will be exposed to them.

Update: According to DrudgeReport.com Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill) has issued an apology indicating that two members of his staff were involved in today’s weapon scare at the Cannon House Office building. The weapon turned out to be a toy —after a security lockdown at the Cannon Bldg.

The Shimkus statement on paper calls this “an unfortunate Halloween misunderstanding,” and says it occurred as a result of “my staff’s efforts to put together a Halloween costume during their lunch hour.”

He says the “staffers wish to convey their deepest regrets to all Members. fellow staff, and visitors to Washington who were inconvenienced by this incident.”