<p>Bloomington seems like the perfect college town but there also seems to be a fair amount of major crime. Lauren Spierer is still missing and my understanding is that this is not the first female student at IUB to disappear. Should parents be concerned overall, especially for daughters? Is there a lot of crime at IUB? Just does not seem like you hear about this type of stuff at other schools.</p>
<p>At the time Lauren disappeared, she was not a student at IU (off for the summer), was living off-campus and was doing just about everything students are told not to do for safety reasons. Bloomington is a small city. Things happen in small cities - especially small cities with the active night life of a college town. Bloomington does not strike me as particularly dangerous if you are careful. It does not appear as if Lauren was being particularly careful. The other female student to disappear (and later found to have been murdered) was Jill Behrman in 2000.</p>
<p>If you want to compare campus crime stats, google clery report and input your parameters. </p>
<p>I don’t think that IU is any more dangerous than other campuses or that Bloomington is a dangerous place to live. There is crime everywhere. And people everywhere need to use good sense in their day to day activities. Parents can talk until they are blue in the face, but it still won’t make any difference until students make responsible choices. Too many of them think they are invincible and that nothing bad will happen to them. Magical thinking at it’s worst.</p>
<p>If you want to stay safe, don’t drink to the point that you can’t make good choices. Always stay with your friends. Don’t drink out of a glass that has been out of your line of sight. Don’t walk alone at night. Don’t let your friends walk alone at night. </p>
<p>Bottom line—people make horrible choices when they are impaired by either alcohol or drugs. Limit your risk by minimizing your impairment and sticking with your friends.</p>
<p>And, I am in no way condoning underage drinking. But realistically, I know it happens. Make good choices!</p>
<p>Bloomington is pretty safe realtive to other big 10 citys. I am from Evanston and comparing the police blotter for a north shore town of 75,000 to a town in southern Indiana of 70,000, Bloomington’s crime rate is less than half. the reason these things get so much press is because they are so rare.</p>
<p>I think she was taking a class at Ivy Tech Bloomington this summer.</p>
<p>It really doesn’t matter where she was taking classes, since IU is much closer to her apartment than Ivy Tech is. However, the point here to all students now is to be more careful and make the right decisions at the right time especially during late night around the downtown area.</p>
<p>[LAPD</a> veteran warns IU students - fox59.com](<a href=“http://www.fox59.com/videogallery/66118864/News/LAPD-veteran-warns-IU-students]LAPD”>http://www.fox59.com/videogallery/66118864/News/LAPD-veteran-warns-IU-students)</p>
<p>Video evidence that many female students at IU have not learned a thing from Lauren’s abduction. Seriously, how can young women who are bright enough to get into IU be so stupid! Walking alone at 3am is just plain dumb, especially if you are impaired in any way.</p>
<p>A lot of smart people do stupid things. I’ve seen brighter students do just as bad or worse. You have tens of thousands of students cramped in a small, not exactly the most exciting town. What do you expect?</p>
<p>Bloomington is relatively safe. Unfortunately though, crime exists everywhere. If you think Bloomington is dangerous come to Philly.</p>
<p>What do I expect? I expect that seemingly bright young people would not have forgotten, in just a few months, that Lauren was abducted while engaging in the same stupid behavior on those same streets.</p>
<p>My point is that danger exists everywhere and students could easily lessen their risk if they acted with safety in mind. This generation all grew up with the standard “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” They also need to have “Friends don’t let friends walk alone late at night, especially if they are impaired.” drummed into their heads.</p>
<p>Also, I am well aware that Philly is comparatively more dangerous than Bloomington. My daughter lived in Camden for two years, which I’m sure you’ll agree is even worse. But she and her roommates minimized their risks by acting in a safe manner.</p>
<p>You expect too much. This is a party school we’re talking about here. This is a school full of students who do all sorts of **** in parties on weekends not caring at all about what they learned about so and so in grade school. Especially during little 500.</p>
<p>A generation ago many people didn’t think that it was a big deal to drive drunk. That attitude has been successfully replaced with a safer one after a nationwide campaign by MADD.</p>
<p>Will that ever happen with a message about friends taking care of their friends when they are impaired? Probably not. But another way to tackle the problem would be for the university to institute stringent penalties for using a fake id. Or for any underage drinking they become aware of. Instead of the weak and unbelievably ineffective measures they employ now, they suspend the student for the remainder of the semester. No refunds, no grades. </p>
<p>And how about closing down those bars that consistently serve underage students with a wink and a nod to their fake id’s? </p>
<p>I guess it makes sense that the students don’t take their safety seriously, since adults who could make a difference don’t take it seriously either.</p>
<p>End of rant.</p>
<p>I’ll take this one from the perspective of a mother of a girl who is in a sorority. I like that the fraternity pledges (or some subset of them?) are required to be sober and available to give rides or walks home to the girls. My daughter reports that they are very aware of girls who are about to set out alone, and make sure they have an escort. In at least the case of my daughter’s sorority, a group of girls are assigned to be the “sober” patrol for each party and keep an eye on their sisters to make sure nothing gets out of hand. Obviously the fact that they need these assignments mean there is plenty of underage drinking. I’m not saying that’s okay, but it is reality and I’m glad there are measures put in place to keep the participants relatively safe. But as others have said, ultimately it comes down to individual behavior and values. I wish the people who were with Lauren that night had done the right thing and taken care of her.</p>
<p>Tulare, I am really glad to hear that some of the students at IU already have the mindset of watching out for their friends when drinking is involved. I know underage drinking in college is a reality that will not change. Heck, I lived the same reality back in the 70’s. But, if we could get more young people to recognize the true risks involved, and minimize those risks like in your daughter’s Greek situation, they would be so much safer. I applaud your daughter’s sorority for recognizing a problem and doing something solve it.</p>