by Gila Hayes
Businesswomen who need to give clients contact information are safer renting an offsite mail box and phone service. Never list residential telephones or home addresses on business cards or promotional literature that you hand out. Even if you are careful to whom you give your card, you cannot control where it goes after it is out of your hands.
A rich resource for thieves is the information deposited in the garbage can. Paper shredders are quite affordable, or set aside one trash can for “burnables” if you have a fireplace or woodstove in which to destroy credit card slips, offers of credit, or any other paper containing personal data. Be particularly careful what you leave in the trash in a motel room or other place outside the home. Exercise caution when communicating or doing business over the internet. Be extremely guarded in revealing any personal information, and monitor children’s on-line activity for the same exposure.
Earlier we discussed protecting the security of your keys. Along the same line of thought, the information you carry in an easily snatched purse can lead a committed criminal to your door. One of my friends has solved this problem by carrying identification, licenses, emergency cash, credit cards and even a spare key in a separate business card case like those found in office-supply stores. The case is small enough to carry inside her pocket where it is less vulnerable to theft.
An intruder can stuff himself into a surprisingly small hiding place, given enough time and motivation.
Call Me Crazy, but—
Do the preparations in this chapter sound a little paranoid? They’re not! There is a big difference between a fear-ridden person and one who acknowledges the possibility of danger and practices simple precautions to prevent it. The Department of Justice reports that nearly 15% of all crimes of violence take place in the victim’s home, and another 15% occur near the home.3 Violent crime is not always something that happens to other people!
Notes
1Ayoob, In the Gravest Extreme, op. cit.
2Quigley, Paxton, Armed and Female, released in paperback in 1990 by St. Martin’s Press, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.
3http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cvusst.htm, op. cit.
CHAPTER 8
Campus Safety for Young Adults
The morbid focus placed on school shootings in recent years has nearly eclipsed all the other crimes to which American students are subjected. And while shooters on campuses far too frequently take the lives of others without facing any real resistance before they kill themselves or in the minority of cases are stopped by other means, students are astronomically more likely to fall prey to the crimes of aggravated assault, robbery and forcible rape.
What defenses are available to students, especially at the collegiate level, where they are entering early adulthood yet are part of the controlled society so prevalent in academia? Not only are firearms prohibited on most campuses, even less than lethal devices like the Taser® are usually restricted as well. Consider the irony: in this supposedly life-preparatory setting, many safety preparations are preempted by the school, and in the case of state-run schools, by the very state itself. And yet we expect graduates to emerge ready to take their place in society!
In a fit of national blindness, we seem to think that college campuses cocoon their students in a safe environment. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. In 2006, 2,802 students were victims of violent crime on American campuses and 506 cases of forcible rape were reported. If a student is sufficiently mature to be sent away from home for higher education, she must be taught how to avoid becoming the victim of violent crime, as well as being ready to practice prevention methods and physical self-defense. Without those skills, her place in the crime statistics compiled on the Security On Campus website1 is nearly assured.
Campus Crime Prevention
Certainly some schools are statistically safer than others, and the U.S. Department of Education tabulates and makes college campus crime statistics available online2. Still, even campuses that take active countermeasures such as keycard entries, video surveillance, strict substance abuse policies and rigid parent notification procedures are not free of crime.
Dormitories and open campuses must look like a rich resource to human predators! In suburban neighborhoods, a predator has to deal with alarmed homes, neighborhood watch, and other deterrents. On campuses, not only are there people moving around at all hours of day and night, but while the main dorm door may be locked and alarmed, one may see ground-floor windows hanging open, whether the room’s occupant is inside or has forgotten to lock up when she left for class. Once inside the dorm, the predator can move beyond the room he has accessed and do his damage, if he finds that room does not contain what he wants.
Outside their lodgings, students traveling solo or two-by-two look like easy prey, so girls are encouraged to go in groups whenever possible. Other activity that makes the criminals’ jobs easier comes when students leave late-night parties, or fall under the influence of alcohol or drugs. These students are easy targets for opportunistic criminals, including other students. Attacks also occur at parties, when young women are sexually assaulted by several fellow partiers, or suffer date rape after going into a secluded area with the assailant on any number of plausible excuses.
Preventing these crimes requires abstinence from intoxicants, as well as knowing how to put up an aggressive physical defense. Training like Tony Blauer’s Personal Defense Readiness3 programs should be a prerequisite for leaving home and going away to school!
Students Cooperate to Stay Safe
When I asked about campus safety issues, Stephanie Beamer, director of an all-women’s cooperative house at Oregon State University, told me about a number of student safety programs in place at OSU: “When growing up we had people looking out for us and people to take us places, whereas a campus environment is very different and new and unknown. Still, I think it’s assumed that women know how to protect themselves,” she explains. Some women carry pepper spray, she reported, and a few carry knives.
Women walking alone causes the most concern, and often friends who are driving will give a friend a ride home, even if it is only for two or three blocks. Most of the young women Stephanie knows choose to drive to their destination if they can’t find people who will walk with them. In addition, a student-operated transportation system is funded through student tuition making a van available to pick up students and take them to their destination safely. The campus is equipped with emergency telephones that are directly connected to the public safety department. Students on campuses so equipped should take note of the location of the phones and make that part of their awareness, though an organized predator may find these easy to disable. Once again, a cell phone is a good idea, if not an out-and-out necessity.
Stephanie believes that most female students understand the dangers of walking alone, and they are encouraged to tell someone where they are going and when they expect to return before heading out. One OSU safety initiative formed a list of male students who were willing to be on-call for students needing a safe escort. Most of the concern is over night time excursions, Stephanie commented, but she noted that one of the worst abductions in Corvallis, Oregon—home of OSU—occurred in broad daylight when a visiting college student was abducted while doing some cleaning outside the apartments her sister and brother-in-law operated on the edge of the campus.
On campus, male students receive information on sexual assault in addition to the rape prevention training offered for the women. Young men are encouraged to move beyond simply being bystanders while a woman is at risk or being assaulted, Stephanie told me. “I personally believe that it is extremely intertwined with women’s safety; males need to be involved for this issue to be resolved,” she emphasizes.
Surviving Campus Shootings
Though the incidents of death or injury from campus shootings are far smaller in number than other violent crime, we would be remiss if we failed to suggest strategies for surviving these atrocities. One of the biggest advantag
es the campus shooter enjoys is a field of victims who are not only unable to fight back on his terms, but who are also usually stunned into submission. At a minimum, we must guide our students through the mental preparation to increase their odds of survival.
Unfortunately, this girl is easy pickings for criminals who need to avoid witnesses.
Without the buffering safety of crowds, this student chooses her walking route carefully, is alert to her surroundings, and wastes no time getting to her destination.
Campus shooters are usually somehow disgruntled, whether from social abuse, failing to receive academic advancement, being dismissed from the school, or breaking off a romantic relationship. Many have often expressed their despondency verbally before violently acting out their distress. Studies show that many school shooters stated their intentions before the incident but were not taken seriously by their peers.
In a few noteworthy cases, students have stopped the killer’s attack, as in the 2002 shooting at the Appalachian School of Law; the Paducah, Kentucky school shooting; and the Kinkel shooting in Springfield, Oregon. In other cases, staff stopped the shooting, like the teacher who stopped Barry Loukaitis in Moses Lake, Washington; the assistant principal who stopped the Pearl, Mississippi shooter; and the banquet hall owner who disarmed the teen who shot up the eighth-grade dance in Edinboro, Pennsylvania in 1998.
Responsible parents make sure their young women know how to defeat common attacks with more than just desperate, helpless flailing, as McKenzie first demonstrates at the beginning of a practice session with her mom.
Brady explains to her daughter how the thumbs of the grabbing hands are most easily overcome, should someone grab and attempt to pull her where she does not wish to go.
These courageous acts are also extremely dangerous, and, of course, cannot be recommended without qualification. Still, had more of the victims understood how guns work and acknowledged the ultimate responsibility they bore for their own survival, the tables might have been turned on school shooters who pause to reload.
Instead of just blindly believing that the school administration is responsible for student safety, students need to memorize the routes of escape in the varied classrooms, lecture halls, and other school facilities. When classroom seating is not assigned, a seat close to a door is a good idea; in libraries, cafeterias, and other public areas, choose a seat that accommodates easy exit. A rapid escape or exit alternative is probably the student’s best choice, and preparation to do that requires acknowledgement that this kind of danger could present itself in their classroom, as well as prior examination out of the various areas they frequent. If the student shows no interest in making this survey, a wise parent should accompany them on a walk around the school facility and point out how to get away from various areas.
Too often we deny that anything is wrong when there are reasonably clear clues that an attack is about to happen. Do not hesitate to leave the classroom or go and stand near a doorway if a student becomes agitated. Young people hate to stand out from a crowd, and all to often stay in the flock as it is headed for slaughter. The all-too-human tendency to stand and gape as someone suffers an emotional meltdown should be resisted. The safest response is to leave such scenes immediately.
Following her mom’s instructions, McKenzie discovers how easily she can break free of a hard, two-handed grab.
Brady spars with her daughter, practicing escapes from a grab coming from behind. Taught and practiced efficiently at home, these lifesaving skills are essential for young women in today’s world. Kudos to the smart parents preparing their daughter for life’s realities!
You Are Responsible for Yourself!
One of the biggest lessons to come with adulthood is that the individual is responsible for what she does, and that she must prevent harmful things that others would do to her. Whether this entails standing up and getting away to a safer place when another student is violently acting out, or whether it is dealing forcefully with an overaggressive date, or maybe it means telling someone who always seems to be shadowing you, to go away and quit following you, all these assertive actions contribute to personal safety when practiced alongside other sensible crime prevention steps.
Personal safety requires good advance planning. Completing a safe late-night study session may require checking materials out of the library early in the evening so that cramming can be done in the safety of your dorm room or sorority house, thus avoiding a midnight trip home from the library. Order in meals rather than making a midnight trek to the all-night burger joint, or better yet, anticipate the need for a meal in advance and buy food beforehand.
This kind of strategic thinking is the mark of a young woman who is ready to be out on her own. Parents need to teach and reward their daughters for this kind of responsibility.
Notes
1Security On Campus, Inc., 133 Ivy Lane, Suite 200, King Of Prussia, PA 19406, 888-251-7959 http://www.securityoncampus.org/
2http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp
CHAPTER 9
Personal Safety at Work
“Workplace violence” is a buzzword that human resources managers dread and a condition that continues to plague American workers. The Department of Labor’s 2005 Survey of Workplace Violence Prevention estimated that fully 70% of the businesses surveyed had no concrete plan for preventing attacks on their workers.1 Women are the targets of more than half of all nonfatal workplace assaults, and are more likely than men to be attacked by someone they know: a coworker, repeat customer, patient or domestic partner.
In 2002, the Occupational and Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimated that two million Americans had been victims of workplace violence2. A year earlier, the Department of Justice estimated that 1.3 million simple assaults, 325,000 aggravated assaults, 36,500 rapes and sexual assaults, 70,000 robberies and 900 homicides occurred yearly in the workplace. As with all statistics, the numbers quoted vary wildly: the U.S. Department of Labor reported that in private industry alone there were 441 on-the-job homicides in 2006.
While massacres committed by disgruntled workers captivate the news media, the daily dangers to working women are more prevalent and considerably broader in scope than these sensational crimes. The hazards women face daily go largely unreported in the press, being less dramatic than a madman shooting up a factory. Because threats to personal safety can never be completely removed, you remain responsible for your own protection at work.
Making Choices
James Potter, workplace violence prevention consultant, identifies denial of personal vulnerability as contributing to the continuation of unsafe conditions. “We seem to accept any decrease in violence stats as a victory, with no outrage about how high the occurrence totals still are. We’ve slowly become calloused to this high level of personal violence happening all around us,” Potter notes. “Do we demand that someone find ways to preempt more of this personal terrorism all about us? Or, is it time to take responsibility for our own well-being by learning self-safekeeping that works, anyplace, at any time?” he asks.
An employer’s failure to correct hazards is a good reason to seek a better position elsewhere! When considering a new job, carefully study the risks the job and location entail. During a job search, pros and cons weighed against different offers should absolutely consider safety and self-defense issues just as seriously as the salary. Job seekers would do well to investigate the employers’ commitment to workplace safety. Start by just keeping your eyes and ears attuned to the environment during your job interview. Does the building entrance have good visibility and is the approach free of heavy foliage or other concealment? Are security cameras or concave mirrors installed in and around the building? Are the windows plastered with signs and advertisements behind which a robbery could occur undetected? Are drop safes or time access safes used to secure cash? Considerations such as these are particularly important in “high risk” occupations such as clerking at an all-night convenience store.
S
tudy the location of the business and any neighborhoods to which you may be required to travel. Consider the safety of the employee parking area and the walk from it into the workplace. Observe customers and workers, watching for disrespectful or threatening language, racial or sexual insults or inappropriate physical contact.
Finally, the type of work sought influences the statistical chance that you will be the target of workplace violence. Which workers are least protected?
The Forbes website reports that in 2002, homicide claimed the lives of 205 retail workers3, well above the 50 police officers murdered on the job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also underscores that retail sales workers are recurring targets, but the common notion that professionals are safer is fallacious: assaults against pharmacists, physicians, and nurses are common and sometimes end in murder. Supervisors and managers are also among higher risk categories, regardless of the business sector occupied.4
At elevated risk are workers filling shifts that fall between 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. In retail settings, clerks who work alone are particularly endangered, with hazards magnified by perils including a remote location, poor lighting, obscured windows, the absence of escape routes, and duties including stocking merchandise from, or dumping trash in, areas outside the relative protection of the well-lit or occupied portions of the store. A 2002 OSHA report identified workers who exchange money with the public, provide transportation, or have extensive contact with the public5 as being at higher risk.