There are some new rules this year for kids who plan on celebrating Halloween in North York Borough.
All kids are required to wear a wristband while trick-or-treating, and those who don’t live in the borough won’t be able get one.
We’re told the idea came about after last year’s Halloween “chaos”.
“Literally like a rampage of kids like everywhere, they were in the roads they were on the sidewalks I’ve never seen any amount of kids like that here,” says Breanne Sprangler, who lives in North York Borough.
That is the reason why wristbands are required by the borough this year.
“It’s the only way we can do it to distinguish one from the other,” says Richard Stark, the North York Borough Council Vice President.
That’s North York kids from everyone else.
Last year the City and West York canceled its Halloween.
So all those kids came to North York Borough to trick-or-treat.
And it caused problems for people on fixed incomes who budget for only the Borough kids.
“They saw people driving up getting out of their cars, 15 kids at a time getting out of their van and just coming to their houses and they never knew any of the kids and they wanted to be able to say no but they wanted to be able to give candy to children in the borough,” says Stark.
Some people aren’t too fond over this new requirement, because they just can’t say no.
“I don’t see the point in having someone wear a wristband to go trick or treating,” says Andrew Liberatore, a new Borough resident.
“I don’t understand how you could deny a child candy, I don’t. To say you have a wristband, you don’t, you can’t have candy, is just rude,” says Spangler.
Breanne Spangler says she plans on bringing an extra stash of treats just incase someone has the guts to turn a child away.
“Maybe we’ll carry a bag around and give it to other kids, that’s really rude of people to do. If you can’t hand it out to everyone don’t hand it out at all,” says Spangler.
Just because a child isn’t wearing a wristband doesn’t mean you can’t give them candy, it just gives people an option.
If you live in North York Borough, you’ll need to bring proof of address to the Borough office the week of Halloween from 12 to 5 in order to get your wristband.