October 31, 2012
Trick or treating will go on as scheduled tonight. MRPD will have extra officers on duty to ensure the safety of parents and children.
Listed below are a few of the more important safety tips to help parents and children ensure a night of fun without incurring the risk of future nightmares.
· Help your child pick out or make a costume that will be safe. Make it fire proof, and if you use a mask, be sure that the eye holes are large enough for good peripheral vision. It is always better to use non-allergenic face paint rather than wearing a mask.
· It is always best to use a non-flame light source to illuminate your decorative jack-o-lanterns. If you set jack-o-lanterns on your porch with candles in them, be sure that they are far enough out of the way so that kids’ costumes won’t be accidentally set on fire.
· Make sure that if your child is carrying a prop such as knives or swords as part of his or her costume that the tips are smooth and flexible enough not to cause injury if the child falls or comes into contact with another child or adult.
· Children always want to take part in pumpkin carving. Small children should not be allowed to use a sharp knife or saw to cut the top or carve the face. There are many commercially available pumpkin-carving kits that come with tiny saws that work better than knives and are safer for older children to use. It is best to let the younger children clean out the pumpkin and draw a face or other design on it, which parents or older children can then carve for them.
· Treating your kids to a spooky Halloween dinner will make them less likely to eat the candy they collect before you have the chance to check it for them. Instruct your children not to eat any treats until they bring them home to be examined by you.
· Review with your children some basic personal safety tips such as not getting into cars or talking to strangers, and watching both ways before crossing streets.
· Let your children know not to cut through back alleys and fields. Make sure they know to stay in populated places and don't go off the beaten track. Stay in well-lighted areas.
· Make sure your child carries a flashlight, glow stick or has reflective tape on their costume to make them more visible to cars.
· It is important that younger children not be permitted to go out Trick or Treating by themselves without some adult supervision. It is a good rule of thumb to have at least one adult for every 3-5 children in a group. Take this opportunity to partner with a neighbor or other family member to assist with supervising the kids. Heck, why not get into costume yourself – no sense letting the kids have all the fun!
· If you allow your older children to go out Trick or Treating by themselves, know the route they will be taking. It is also a good idea for you to walk the route, in the dark, a day or so before hand so you’ll be aware of any hazards the children may come across. If you have a friend or neighbor you know that lives along the planned route, alert them to what costume your child is wearing so that they can keep an eye out for them.
· Make sure you set a time by which the children should be home, and be sure to stress to them the importance of being home on time before they leave. Some children do not have a good sense of time, so an alternative would be to have them come home after they have gone around the block once.
· Explain to your children the difference between tricks and vandalism. Throwing eggs or papering a house may seem like fun, but they need to know that this is unacceptable behavior. Damaging someone’s property or causing them a lot of messy clean up is not fun. Clean up, having to pay for damages and other legal repercussions can ruin Halloween for both children and their parents. The Mount Rainier Police Department is extremely intolerant of vandalism of any sort, regardless of a person’s age.
· Explain to your kids that animal cruelty is not acceptable. Kids know this on their own, but sometimes peer pressure can be a bad thing. Make sure that they know that harming animals is not only morally wrong, but punishable by law and will not be tolerated.
· The official Halloween Safety Game - http://www.halloweenmagazine.
· Homeowners should consider healthy food alternatives to candy for trick-or-treaters which may include packages of low-fat crackers with cheese or peanut butter filling, single-serve boxes of cereal, packaged fruit rolls, mini boxes of raisins and single-serve packets of low-fat popcorn that can be microwaved later. You can also offer non-food treats such as plastic rings, pencils, stickers, erasers, or other small school supplies.
From Chief Michael Sott
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