LRHS hosts a Hall-oween trick-or-treating event every year, where clubs decorate classroom doors and hand out candy–similar to a trunk-or-treat. Most honor societies participate in the event, and they give their hardworking members an opportunity to buy themselves some service hours by donating candy. 

“It’s honestly a really good deal. You go out, spend $20.00 on candy and get two more hours towards your end-of-year goal, so time commitment required,” said Billy Jackson, junior. 

Most honor societies require anywhere between 10-20 service hours by the end of the year for members to retain their membership. Normally, these hours would be achieved through time dedicated to service activities–like volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen–but if students are given an opportunity to get out of actual work, they’re definitely going to take it. 

“I never want to stay after school for the service activities, so the candy donations help me not get kicked out of NHS,” said Kenneth Bubbles, senior. 

A large portion of Leesville’s junior/senior population is in honor societies, and the mass purchasing of candy to get out of actual service leaves the Halloween sections in local Targets barren. This impacts local neighborhoods, as people who try and purchase candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters have to return home empty-handed. 

“My mom always gets candy like three days before Halloween, but she hasn’t been able to buy any the last three years because the shelves are always empty,” said Lyla Barnes, sophomore. 

Honor societies were formed to recognize the hardworking students in a school’s community, but these “hardworking” high schoolers have clearly figured out that pay-to-play is the way to go.