Finances are a huge concern when choosing a college for your child when you’re a single parent. You worry how you are going to pay for all the expenses: tuition, books, housing, meals, transportation and more. Can you find scholarships for your child so they can attend the school of their choice?
The safety of your child should also be at the top of your list of considerations. You’ve seen the headlines: school shootings, sexual assaults, underage drinking and more. Colleges want to downplay the crimes on their campuses so they can attract the best and brightest students.
Do you Know how to Find a School’s Crime Statistics?
You won’t find the information on the Home Page of the college’s website. You may be met with reluctance or blank stares if you ask for that information in person. In the book Stay Safe on Campus, the author, Marcia E. Kelley, tells you how to find this valuable information. “You may need to dig to find the security and crime statistics information for your desired school. Check under Campus Police, Security, Student Services, Admissions, or just type in “security” into the Search box on the school’s home page.”
Why is this important? Jeanne Clery was a student at LeHigh University in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The Clery family had decided that Jeanne should go to a different school than her two older brothers, who attended Tulane in New Orleans, because a murder had occurred near that campus. Her parents thought Tulane was “too dangerous” for their daughter. She was raped, and then murdered, in her dorm room in 1986 by another student . The Clery’s later discovered there had been 38 violent crimes at LeHigh in the previous three years. In 1988, Pennsylvania created an act requiring schools to make crime statistics from the last three years available to the public. The Clery family later created a non-profit advocacy group called Security on Campus.
There are other dangers to be considered as well. Do you have a child with food and beverage sensitivities? Do you have a child with a disability? Do you have a child facing sexual orientation challenges?
Prepare yourself and your child. Stay safe on campus.
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Stay Safe on Campus was written by Marcia E. Kelley in November, 2015 and is available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats. Kindly leave a review.
Peterson, M. (2011, April 5). Murder at Lehigh University Shocked the Nation 25 Years ago. Patch
