<p>2:05 p.m., Oct. 28, 2006--Newark Police are investigating the rape of a 20-year-old UD student that occurred around 5-5:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 28, at a residence in the 100 block of Haines Street in Newark.</p>
<p>The suspect--unknown to the victim and described as 19-22 years old, with a medium build and short brown hair--made entry into the residence by unknown means. He raped and assaulted the student and then fled in an unknown direction when she resisted. The student was treated and released from Christiana Hospital.</p>
<p>Anyone who observed anything unusual around 5-5:30 a.m., Oct. 28, in the vicinity of Haines Street, Continental Avenue, Lovett Avenue, South Chapel Street or Benny Street is asked to contact the Newark Police Department by calling (302)366-7110, ext. 135; the 24-hour non-emergency number at (302) 366-7111; or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, where information may be left anonymously and a reward is available. </p>
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<p>Got this off UDel's website tonight. Has me frightened! D is thinking of applying there, now I am not so sure.</p>
<p>I don't want to frighten you even more but this kind of thing unfortunately happens to students near many campuses across the country. A few weeks ago 4 males broke into an apartment in the San Diego area and raped two college girls even though they had two male friends visiting them at the time. This was in a decent neighborhood. Fortunately, the rapists were ater apprehended. Hopefuly they'll get long sentences but they won't be long enough IMO.</p>
<p>The thing to be on the watch for is if a particular area or campus has a higher than normal rate of assaults than others. You should be able to get the statistics from the local police departments. I wouldn't rely on ad-hoc information obtained from some student during a tour or from campus literature unless it cited actual statistics. If the campus has its own police department as some of the larger campuses do, you should be able to obtain info from them or sometimes even on their website.</p>
<p>When I was a grad student at Notre Dame a woman was raped by an intruder in her on campus condo bedroom while her roommates were at home. While I was there I was jumped walking back to the dorms at 8:30 pm. My point? Anywhere...anytime. And it's a great campus!
I am notorious for relating shocking news events to my kids as lessons to learn. Gets their attention, is not easily forgotten and comes to the front of their minds when they think of doing something stupid. Yep, the dead, drunk student on his 21st birthday, the cheerleader putting her head out the bus window and promptly losing it to a telephone pole...I use them all over and over. And from what my kids tell me...it's pretty effective.</p>
<p>Even if you don't see an article about rape, assault, and robbery doesn't mean it's not present. In fact, I'd be more concerned about a school that doesn't publish crime alerts for fear of bad PR. </p>
<p>Better to see these stories and have serious conversations with your kids about safety than to just pick a school that seemingly doesn't have a problem.</p>
<p>If you ruled out every campus where a crime had occurred you wouldn't have anyplace to apply to. All you can do is visit and get a feel for it yourself.</p>
<p>Actually, there are campuses where kids internalize the safety message, and campuses where the blue light phones are there but nobody uses them; the safety van leaves the library at midnight with three kids on board, etc. All campuses have crime-- the question is how do the students behave in response to crime. I am less impressed with the safety infrastructure than I am with how students talk about their own behavior. Sprinklers and smoke detectors in the dorms don't help if students hang stuff from them, blocking the sensors; armed campus police don't help if students are reluctant to call for an escort when they're leaving a lab late at night and are walking to their dorms.</p>
<p>Soo-- talk to current students and find out what goes on.</p>
<p>My DD is a freshman at Udel. Am I upset that this happened? Oh course! I was horrified when that poor girl was raped and murdered in Vermont. Am I worried for my daughter at UD and her friends at UVM? Yes. But I'm also worried for any young female, anywhere. I am in the same category as sax - I use these and other incidents as teaching tools.
When we were doing the school tour thing, my husband always made a point to check out the security of the campuses and surrounding areas. He always spoke with the campus police. He was impressed with how upfront they were at UD - that they were willing to publish attackes, robberies etc in the daily news. He was impressed with the escort service and rape defense training program and that the students seemed to use them. Some places were "nothing bad ever happens here" which is scarier to me than identifying the problems in your area and having plans to deal with them.
My prayers to that girl...</p>
<p>rapes occur anywhere
so do other horrific crimes
Where was Nicole Simpson murdered? Brentwood?
There are ways to actively not present yourself as a victim and there are ways to increase safety
Obviously not everything is going to be prevented
and sometimes it takes something awful to motivate ourselves to change our own responses</p>
<p>But we can use this as a motivation- while it is terrible that this occured- if it motivates someone to become more aware then it will have ripple effects for the good</p>