When Even a Pumpkin Is Too Much: Halloween Rules Hurt Families
FLORIDA ACTION COMMITTEE | OPINION
When Even a Pumpkin Is Too Much
“Sex offenders and predators don’t get to celebrate.”
That is the opening line of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Halloween message. Think about who hears those words: a spouse, a child, an entire household.
In my opinion, telling a whole group of people they cannot decorate or celebrate is going overboard. Their families feel that message, too.
This hits home for me in Hernando County. Halloween is my favorite time to decorate, but our local restrictions limit what my family can display. I do not hand out candy. I spend that time with my own children.
Our children under the burden get still upset and ask, “Why can’t we even put window stickers up?”. It happens to me!
Children did nothing wrong. Neither did any other child living under this burden created by lawmakers. Yet something as small as a sticker becomes a source of worry at home.
These rules begin with elected officials. State lawmakers in Tallahassee write state laws. City councils and county commissioners pass local ordinances. Agencies then interpret and enforce them.
Video credit: Original citizen video shared on Facebook
In the video, a citizen uses rhetoric toward an entire population that, in my opinion, risks encouraging vigilantism and banishment. This kind of language can fuel hostility toward whole households, including spouses and children who have done nothing wrong. Everyone deserves safety from threats and harassment.
That is where gaps can appear between what lawmakers say a rule should do, how officers apply it, and what families understand also how citizens view a population grouped like this.
“It’s the law” does not end the discussion.
Many of us ask agencies for clarification because we want to remain law-abiding, even when the rules are burdensome. Too often, we receive no clear answer. People should not have to guess what is allowed while fearing that a wrong guess could lead to arrest.
Show me the evidence that my family’s Halloween decorations put children in danger. How does a pumpkin on our porch or a sticker in our window threaten anyone? Explain what harm these bans prevent—and provide the evidence.
Readers can examine
Jacksonville’s ordinance, Section 685.104, and
Hernando’s 2023 amendment to its holiday restrictions.
Their wording and exceptions matter. Neither should be reduced to a slogan.
Both jurisdictions’ holiday provisions appear in Exhibit 2 of FAC’s lawsuit.
The challenge asks courts to examine these restrictions as part of a larger system.
Missouri shows why review matters. A federal court ruled that forcing registrants to post a “No candy or treats” sign violated the First Amendment. That ruling addressed the sign requirement, leaving other Halloween restrictions in place.
Read the statute and court ruling annotation.
Halloween also brings
targeted enforcement operations and door-knocking compliance checks.
Please be safe, know your requirements, and ask your attorney about unclear rules. Make sure all requirements are meet so we have zero failure to registers going forward to Halloween! Thank you all!
We can follow the rules while asking lawmakers to change them and agencies to explain them.
Before another official says we “don’t get to celebrate,” I wish they would hear my child’s question.
The people who create and enforce these policies owe families an answer.
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I would be curious to know how many of us are actually on probation. I have been off since December of 2007. They dont even come by my house anymore. Question though what is the law? Is it only for people on Probation? That is what I have always thought. We dont celebrate Halloween anyway but just curious.
I am not going to “out” them, but three of my tenants (all registrants) were told by their probation officer to “be home by 5p.m”. If they had to work that night, the p.o. wanted them to ask off from work, to trade shifts or something so they would be home.
Collectively, I get it that we (I am a registrant as well) aren’t allowed to celebrate Halloween. For me personally, not that big of a deal as I don’t celebrate Halloween. But when those in authority want to have to ask off from work just to be home by a certain time, that is interfering in one’s budget and putting undue hardship where it isn’t needed (or wanted).
Am not an attorney, but this, to me reflects the inequity between probation officers and other jurisdictions when they try to enforce beyond the law. As an aside, the previous p.o. allowed to go to the local mall–as long as the store/restaurant had an outside entrance. The current one doesn’t allow at all.
Oh, I could go on. But I won’t. We all know.
It’s wild that Hernando probation actually forces people to post signs banning candy or celebrating Halloween on the door. #Hernando #Probation #Halloween #Rules 🎃🚫⚖️
I’m in Hernando County and I’ve never had to post signs on my house.
On probation last year was told to put up the sign as part of my terms for Halloween and sign paperwork as mark described
Go to You Tube and look for my comment. I posted the article from ATSA titled “Halloween and sexual abuse prevention: The mythical “Halloween effect” ”
Please give it a thumbs up so that ti stays close to the top of the comments.
Otherwise, copy my comment verbatim and post it yourself (so that it stays at the top). I also emailed [email protected] with the same material.
Here is the full comment (so it is easy to copy and paste):
EDITED OUT
Children deserve safety rules based on facts, not fear. ATSA’s 2019 Halloween statement says research found no rise in child sexual abuse around Halloween.
A study of 67,045 reported sexual offenses against children age 12 and younger, involving people outside their families, found no Halloween spike. This raises a fair question: What evidence shows that special Halloween registry rules make children safer?
Parents should focus on road safety, watchful adults, and open talks with children about unsafe behavior—even from someone they know.
Read ATSA’s statement: https://blog.atsa.com/2019/10/halloween-and-sexual-abuse-prevention.html
I just go out to dinner.
I wonder how having a garden of pumpkins would go over?
Are we criminalizing orange pumpkins?
What about Seminole squash?
Gourds are not pumpkins, are LEOs receiving training in horticulture now to know the difference?
Are we going to criminalize participating in Autumn next? I ask for “OBVIOUS” reasons that autumn is associated with harvest, harvest is associated with thanksgiving, thanksgiving is associated with pumpkin pie, pumpkins are Halloween decor, so therefore SO’s are prohibited from experiencing Autumn. And turkeys, and cranberries, and stuffing. My God People! think of the children. No! Not the one’s suffering because their father was forced into homelessness. It’s apparent that those children deserve it.
Since I have been off probation, we have a “Casino” night every Halloween and leave by 5 and don’t come home until after 1AM spending the time having dinner there, gambling, hanging out, and just not being home. We figure it’s one place they can’t say there are ANY children around.