A surprising amount of Morton East students have never been to a haunted house.  

Halloween themed haunted houses started during the Great Depression times because they were used as a way to distract young American teens from doing their yearly holiday pranks on properties. Many families would decorate their basements with different scary scenes, so kids would travel from basement to basement during trick or treating. The haunted house didn’t become something popular until Walt Disney decided to build one called Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion and opened it in 1969. This quickly became a success and spread throughout the country as everyone’s favorite activity during the spooky season. In a random survey of 104 Morton East students, 16 reported never going to a haunted house.  

“I see haunted houses more funny than scary, especially if you go with the right group of friends,” senior Kiara Torres said. 

Unfortunately, the Town of Cicero will not be opening up this year. 

 “It sucks a lot because not many people have transportation to go to a further haunted house or money for it since the Cicero one was close and affordable,” junior Jocelyn Hernandez said.  

However, some members of the community are not upset about this. 

“I think haunted houses can affect younger kids in the long term,” said Fine Arts teacher Nikki Crespo.