The Hannah Graham case: How can we improve safety in college towns moving forward?

[Anonymous]

Although the suspect in the Hannah Graham case has not been tried and convicted, we have learned a great deal in the past two weeks about how easy it is to get in trouble in a college town where binge drinking is commonplace. As a parent with kids who want to go to college, this incident and the Morgan Harrington case has me thinking we need to insist that colleges, individuals, families, and governments do more to ensure security.

What can we do moving forward?

My suggestions:

1. Buddy system: No one goes home alone.
2. More police presence: Police and colleges should crack down on parties serving alchohol to minors. You get caught, you get kicked out of school. Police should patrol the streets -- on foot, not by car! -- and look out for people walking alone who are visibly drunk and get them home safely, no threat of arrest.
3. More surveillance videos in college towns
4. More fun, healthy socializing alternatives for those college kids in the "gap years" between age 18 and 21 every weekend.
5. Bars should be required to call cabs for any person who is annebriated (this includes underage people that they turn away at the door) and seems to be alone and thus get them out of the bar, home, and out of trouble.

Do any of these ideas make sense? Please chime in with any ideas you might have.

[Anonymous]

Don't party and drink until 1:00am or 2:00AM and walk home alone drunk.

[Anonymous]

Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

This is college, not high school. 20 year olds do not need curfews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

I don't think anyone will want to attend your college.

[Anonymous]

Make drinking a part of growing up like in Europe? So the kids don't need to go wild and binge drink at college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

I don't think anyone will want to attend your college.

lots of people want to attend the military academies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make drinking a part of growing up like in Europe? So the kids don't need to go wild and binge drink at college.

this.

legalized prostitution would possibly also help as horny guys can just pay for sex and live out their control fantasies instead of preying on college women.

[Anonymous]

teach kids to use some common sense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:teach kids to use some common sense

I don't doubt for a second that this young girl heard a thousand times not to walk alone at night. Teaching/learning/doing are not all the same.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps for the first time in human history a generation could realize that drinking alcohol is a drug that can wreck your life. College/education and binge drinking are complete opposites. Why do these two things go hand in hand? Women are vulnerable if they drink!

[Anonymous]

This whole conversation makes me so sad. Yes, the selfish part of me wants to put big heavy books on their heads, bubble wrap them and keep them safe. But I love these kids enough to know that they **need** to LIVE their own lives.

Will I get gray hairs. You bet. Will I teach them about how to keep themselves safe. Oh, absolutely.

But there is no doubt in my mind - AT ALL - that Hannah's parents talked to Hannah. They raised an admirable young lady who was in the process of learning about her own limits...

The BIG glaring mistakes that I see in this case, if JM does, indeed, prove to be responsible for Hannah's disappearance - is the lack of accountability that JM routinely faced throughout his life. That was not a kindness to this guy or to society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

This is college, not high school. 20 year olds do not need curfews.

Well, obviously some do. The problem is too much freedom dumped into kids' laps all at once. The result is binge drinking and casual sex. You aren't automatically a mature adult just because you've got a high school diploma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

This is college, not high school. 20 year olds do not need curfews.

Well, obviously some do. The problem is too much freedom dumped into kids' laps all at once. The result is binge drinking and casual sex. You aren't automatically a mature adult just because you've got a high school diploma.

Who the hell are you blaming here? Hannah? Her parents? The University? The college Ski Team? Her good Friends? The bars? Because if that is what you are doing -that is absolutely ridiculous. JM is thirty freakin' two and he came on to a vulnerable teenager and made her disappear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Less of the futuristic "Big Brother" is watching and recording, and more of the "old school."

Young men and young women live in separate dorms.

Dorm check in is 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Every student lives in a dorm except seniors, who have a choice of where to live. Colleges can buy up the existing off-campus apartments to facilitate this.

Every other weekend the college divisions or dorms sponsor later evening social events.

Drinking and drug use for social reasons is limited to certain weekend hours on campus, and is off limits in the dorms after ten on weekend nights.

This is college, not high school. 20 year olds do not need curfews.

Well, obviously some do. The problem is too much freedom dumped into kids' laps all at once. The result is binge drinking and casual sex. You aren't automatically a mature adult just because you've got a high school diploma.

Who the hell are you blaming here? Hannah? Her parents? The University? The college Ski Team? Her good Friends? The bars? Because if that is what you are doing -that is absolutely ridiculous. JM is thirty freakin' two and he came on to a vulnerable teenager and made her disappear.

I'm not blaming anyone! Just agreeing with the PP that college kids would be safer if we still had single sex dorms with curfews. I am amazed that all parents cannot see the wisdom of those rules. I had too much freedom as a college student and made some bad decisions, I was lucky nothing happened to me.