School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

According to Private Officer’s News Network (November 19, 2012), sexual assaults on our college campuses has become a nationwide problem.  The article pointed out that the sense of Emory University, a small, close-knit private school, as a protected environment has been shaken after an unusual number of sexual assaults were reported to campus police.

As a matter of fact, seven rapes, including at least one from 2011, were reported at the school.  The incidents, most of which happened this semester, were revealed during counseling sessions, Emory officials said.  The reporting was anonymous and every one involved acquaintances.

Several years ago I put together and taught a Self Defense for Coeds program at the request of Northampton Community College, and my research and anecdotal  interviews with campus women revealed that sexual assaults on or off campus is much more rampant than even this article suggests.  Beacause of the concentration on young people in one place, many of them out from under parental oversight for the first time, and exposed to the part scene during the fall semester – you know, football parties, Halloween Galas, serority and fraternity rushes – blossoms into a real crisis when alcohol is added to the mix.  Many of the coeds who are victims of assault are in their first year, are inexperienced, and, sadly, eager to trust almost any young man who befrriends them instead of making the men earn their trust.

Boston University is carrying out recommendations from a task force that called for he school to address systematic issues of assault and alcohol abuse on campus and improve oversight of the issue, which has reached epidemic proportions.  And Amherst College has fomed a committee to make suggestions on how to enhance “sexual respect” on campus after dozens of victims came forward publicly to complain how the college worked against them after they reported attacks.

“People report only when they feel safe and believe they will be supported,” reported Issadore, executive director of the School and College Organization for Preventive Educators, whose members deal with sexual abuse, mental health andother issues (Michelle Issadore).

I will go into some of the personal protection tactics and strategies coeds and otehr vulnerable women can use to minimize their chances of becoming future victims!

Until then, Stay Safe.

Hammer

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