By Emma Velez, Columnist
The Public Safety Department at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs recently released a statement on their website with several helpful “tips” for the university’s female students on what to do if they are physically attacked.
In addition to normal advice to women such as screaming and using physical retaliation to get away from the attacker, the university’s Public Safety Department also issued some rather unusual suggestions to its female community members.
These included telling the attacker “that you have a disease or are menstruating” and that “vomiting or urinating may also convince the attacker to leave you alone.”
Predictably, when students caught wind of the post, a firestorm of tweets ensued.
The post was in response to Colorado HB 1226, which would ban concealed firearms on college campuses in the state.
Whatever the case, the move by the university shows grave insensitivity to women who have been assaulted.
While I am appalled by the advice issued by the University in Colorado, I wondered if our university had similar literature regarding fending off a violent attacker.
A brief perusal of OCU police department’s website yielded only a short list on the tab marked “Safety Escorts”. Perhaps the student body, men and women alike, would benefit from some added advice regarding safety on this issue.
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