Safety tips for Halloween

Posted Oct 30th 2006 12:00PM by Heather Craven
Filed under: Places to go, Health & safety, Gadgets & tech

One of our readers sent in a tip about how to keep your Halloween safe to ensure a good time for all. Most of the list is common sense, but some aspects can be easily overlooked when your kids are chomping at the bit to get out the door for all of that free candy.

One tip this list mentions, and one I had not thought of, is to look at the National Sex Offender Public Registry. It is a user friendly web site. You simply enter your name, state, town and zip code and then you are given a list of names of registered sex offenders in your area. Not only is this good to know for Halloween, it is a very useful bit of information to have for every day of the year.

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. Great advise! One thing though, you do not enter YOUR name but the name of a sex offender (if you happen to know any by name). Graet advise! Never thought of that one before!

Posted at 12:24PM on Oct 30th 2006 by Tammy

2. I hope it's a little more up to date than our state Megan's law registry. A great program but no better than what's put into it. These people fail to re-register and then vanish.

Posted at 1:29PM on Oct 30th 2006 by ann adams

3. I just found out there is a registered offendor RIGHT NEXT DOOR. In my building. On the other side of the hallway. I am freaking out. He was registered in September of this year. Aren't I supposed to be told about this?

Posted at 2:22PM on Oct 30th 2006 by meg

4. Wow, good to know there are almost 100 registered sex offenders in my zip. It seems that many are for prostitution but its still a little scary.

There was one prostitute (who I happen to recognize from my neighborhood) on the website who had many aliases, including "Shelly Long" and "Laura Bush". I found that rather amusing.

Posted at 10:26PM on Oct 30th 2006 by VL

5. Of course they fail to re-register. The laws are often so strict, and society so punitive, that registering means they can't get a job, they can't find a place to live.

I'm not sure how your kids are going to be harmed by anybody, registered or not (or even never convicted) if you're going along with them on their trick-or-treating, which was the rule when I was a kid. I mean, what, you show up at the door with an adult and a gang of kids and tons of other adults and gangs of kids around, and he's just going to whisk you inside with promises of yummy apples?

There's no guarantee that anybody bent on harming children is even going to be home on Halloween - if you're home, and you're registered, people are unlikely to show up at your door, aren't they?

Posted at 10:36PM on Oct 30th 2006 by Uly

6. Thanks for this post. What a good safety tip, and probably one that people often forget about. I just found two "predators" listed in the area that we were planning to trick-or-treat, so will avoid those particular streets. Thanks for this great additional Halloween safety tip.

Posted at 1:28PM on Oct 31st 2006 by Nicola

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