Every year, on the 31st of October people all across the country, and several others, dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating. This year Halloween is on a Thursday. Many will go out to a party and have to return to school or work the following day.

This seems to be an issue that only the holiday of Halloween faces\; Thanksgiving, Easter, and Memorial Day don’t have set dates. Instead, they’re set on specific days of the week. How come? Why not change Halloween to be on the last Saturday of every month?

According to Change.org, there’s a petition trying to do this exact thing. Many concerned parents and desperate children are trying to see that this change pulls through. As of now, 150,875 people have signed\; they are hoping to get to 200,000 by Halloween. Countless parents’ concerns regarding injury and inconvenience with school the next day.

Injuries are not out of the ordinary on Halloween. There have been a reported 3,800 Halloween related injuries each year. Most of which are caused by trick-or-treating in the dark. If Halloween was changed to take place on the last Saturday of October, children would have the opportunity to trick-or-treat earlier in the day. Doing so would make it easier for drivers to see children on the roads, for parents to supervise their children, and for children to have more time to enjoy the full day of Halloween.

Not only are parents concerned with the safety of their children, but they are also worried about their children having to go to school the following day.

One parent explains that she would love to not “have the concern about the kids home having to go to school the following day.”

Scheduling Halloween for the middle of the week isn’t just disadvantageous for the children, but also the parents. Countless Halloween parties are thrown each year, leaving countless adults unsuited for work the next day.

Many students here at Bernards High School have these same concerns.

Sophomore Marlene Ortiz, shares that changing Halloween to the last Saturday would “allow more people to enjoy Halloween with a party and not worry about going to school the next day.”

She’s not the only one\; a senior, Jenna McHale agrees that it would be much more convenient in order to “enjoy [her and many more students’] weekends.”

All students at our high school would benefit from the simple change of the day of Halloween.

What better way to solve this problem than to eliminate the entire problem, and reschedule Halloween for the last Saturday of the month. Parents, children, and adolescents would all benefit from the quick fix─ so what’s stopping us?