A Halloween Candy Overload!

By: Olivia Taylor

Halloween is a holiday filled with scares, costumes, and the most important factor, sugar! Every year Americans buy about 745 million pounds of candy, this equals about 4.5 bags of candy to a person. This is a lot of sugar, but take note that this is not just the amount of candy sold in one month. Many Halloween candy purchases start before October.

The amount of Halloween candy being bought each year is abundant and the prices of this candy have been increasing more and more too. The price of Halloween candy has increased by 8.1% this year. This means that prices overall for this candy have jumped up to 15.3% in cost. This year it is estimated that the U.S. will spend 4.1 billion dollars on Halloween candy alone!

Inflation has been affecting these candy prices by making them rise higher, meaning some Halloween candy will be unaffordable for some people and families. But, candy is not the only Halloween related thing that is costing people’s wallets to dry up like a river in a desert. Costumes and decorations have also been increasing in price by so much that Halloween spending for all, will reach 13.5 billion dollars combined.

Due to inflation Halloween candy is going to cost a pretty penny this year for Americans. But this does not mean you should not celebrate Halloween, keeping a cautious eye out for high prices might be a good idea though.

Have fun with Halloween sugar and scares!

Stand Together And Stop Bullying

By Isabella Dixon

October is bullying prevention month. Middle school students experience the highest rates of bullying, the percent being around 25-28%. Students who have experienced bullying are almost twice as likely to have symptoms of anxiety or depression compared to their peers. Bullying is an unwanted or aggressive behavior that is intentional and is repeated over time. Mount Pleasant Middle school has a zero tolerance of bullying at the school. About 19-20% of U.S students ages 12-18 experience bullying each year.

There are different types of bullying- physical, verbal and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the use of digital devices to harass, humiliate or threaten someone. Bullying someone can cause a lot of problems to the person on the receiving end. Such as depression, anxiety and constant worrying about the bully. Bullying is a very serious topic.

Many students have experienced bullying and some have even taken their own life because of bullying. Some ways to prevent bullying are being kind and caring, helping students when they are struggling and not making fun of them. Also complimenting them on things like their outfit, hairstyle and just being positive overall. Being positive can make someone's day.

Often when someone bullies a person it is because they want to feel powerful like they have control. For some bullies, putting others down is a defense mechanism to make them feel superior. For others, it is for them to fit into a certain group in school or to look “cool”. Some important things to do to help a friend that went through bullying is talking to them, validating their feelings and making sure they feel comfortable enough to talk about it. Once they have told you what's going on be sure to tell a trusted adult so they can handle the situation from there. Bullying is a very serious matter and it needs to stop.

The Demonization Of Food

By: Eli W.

The demonization of food in modern internet culture has been something that you may have seen being more and more popular online. The seeming hatred of food in general is becoming more and more of a popular thing and has made the stereotype of Americans being “unhealthy” or that their food is “unhealthy” which is never backed up by facts or actual research. A trend on the internet is to talk about how many “crappy” or “poor” ingredients are in the food industry and in our food in general and is most of the time based off of a untrue thing that they got from something that has been disproved or will say something like “ Aspartane is poisonous or is a 2b carcinogen” which while is true does not really mean anything as things like the sun your phone or Aloe vera are also carcinogens. A thing that needs to be more popular is realizing that “the dose makes the poison” because yes things like Diet Coke have Aspartame in it but you would need to drink over a dozen cans of it a day consistently to have any real issues. And while the American food and health industry is not perfect by any means neither is any other country but the U.S is still overall a top 10 country in food and health safety.

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