Interesting article
[Quote]
Thackurdeen discovered that there is no federal agency, credentialing organization, or institution of higher education that keeps track of deaths or injuries during study abroad. She and other parents are now pushing for Congress to pass federal laws protecting and informing young people studying abroad.
^^
There isn’t much we can do as a country to protect our students when they go abroad. However, after learning about these actual stories, particularly ones where risky behaviors were involved, we can share them with our young people to serve as a reminder to be careful, and to remind them of how one tragedy can have ever-lasting pain on the survivors.
When I told my kids and other young relatives about the recent death of a UA student abroad, not only did I talk to them about the unnecessary risky activity that directly led to the student’s fall, but I tried to “paint a picture” to them of these poor grieving parents on a very long flight, crying non-stop, to ID and collect the body…and how for the rest of their lives they will be thinking, “why did he do something so risky?” Surely, he never once thought, “if I fall and die, my parents will go thru hell and grieve for the rest of their lives.”
Sadly, it is necessary with my kids to use the stories of others who made unwise decisions as examples. When they were in middle school, it was stories of other kids ‘sexting’ or being expelled for something rather stupid. They will not ‘surf’ on a car because a girl a few years older than them was thrown off and killed on her last day of high school. I usually just point out the articles and ask “can you believe you can be expelled for swearing at a teacher or texting in school or posting a joke?”
http://m.channel3000.com/news/Pope-Francis-meets-parents-of-UW-student-found-dead-in-river/40379560
Pope Francis meets with Beau Solomon’s parents.
Do we need to create another government bureaucracy to track students running around the world? No. There is a government agency responsible for the care of US citizens overseas, the Department of State. US citizens who are planning on visiting or staying at a foreign country should register with the State Department or the embassy with their contact information if they need to be contacted during an emergency (evacuation of US citizens, etc.)
College students should also heed state department travel warnings.
I agree that there is no need for a separate agency/process. College students are adult US citizens. They aren’t some special group that needs its own services abroad. Of course, most will also have some sort of support from their school or program. Just as people in a tour group would have support from the tour operators, etc.
I just saw an update on this story. Apparently the student confronted a homeless person after he had just been robbed (perhaps by that person or another one in the same area). I’m thinking he got robbed, and was trying to get his stuff back- and then was attacked by multiple people. So incredibly SAD. My heart is breaking for these people.
Who said anything about “creating another government bureaucracy” or a new agency? The legislative effort mentioned in the article in post #20 would amend the Clery Act to require that institutions include study abroad incidents in their crime reports to the Department of Education.
I like the idea of having a category for study abroad incidents included in the Clery Act data. The sad thing is though that many (most?) parents and students are not even aware of the the Clery Act and have no idea that data is even available.
I haven’t read the material in the links, but I thought the Clery Act covered only incidents that happened on campus or in campus-controlled areas (like university-owned off-campus housing). Is that incorrect?
No you are correct but @guidebywire mentioned a legislative effort to amend the Act to include crimes committed when students were abroad.
It’s kind of complicated, worded and clarified a few times, but this is basic:
“You must disclose statistics for reported Clery Act crimes that occur (1) on campus, (2) on public property within or immediately adjacent to the campus, and (3) in or on noncampus buildings or property that your institution owns or controls. The definitions for these geographic categories are Clery Act-specific and are the same for every institution regardless of its physical size or configuration. It doesn’t matter whether your campus consists of leased space in a strip mall, occupies 10 city blocks or consists of a couple of buildings on another school’s campus. “Clery Act geography” is defined the same way.”
“Foreign institutions are exempt from the requirements; however, foreign campuses of U.S. institutions are not exempt and must comply with the Clery Act and other safety- and security-related requirements discussed in this handbook.”
Apparently, as one example, JCU used to be “academically associated” (probably means course credit) with Hiram. But I don’t think it qualifies as a branch of a US school.
Is the proposal to extend the requirements to campuses or institutions overseas (to the extent that the US has jurisdiction)? If so, that makes sense but it would not result in the reporting of tragic incidents like the one at issue in this thread.
(I personally don’t think the Clery Act needs to be extended to geographically remote off-campus incidents, either here in the US or abroad. But it makes sense for the same requirements to apply to foreign campuses of US institutions to the same extent as they apply here (to the extent the US has jurisdiction to impose such requirements on foreign campuses; I don’t know if we can do that or not)).
ETA: oops, I skimmed over the part of the previous post where the foreign campuses of US institutions are addresses. So it seems like the current US law makes sense.)
Here’s the text of the bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3551/text
And of the Act: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/1092 (section (f) )
Do most people find the Clery reports for any schools you are familiar with to be accurate?
I think it could be helpful to have the data on incidents occurring on study abroad trips. But the data would have to include info on where the crime took place. You also would not want all the countries listed in aggregate but listed by individual country. If there were a large number of muggings or robberies in or around where the students were living, then it might point to an issue the school should address for that particular program.
This sort of thing could be another tool to assist parents and students on assessing where to go when studying abroad.
That makes sense. An aggregate number by city or area would be useful; it wouldn’t even have to be by school. Unless we think the schools could be doing more to prevent these incidents, through, say safety training.
Homeless man’s lawyer:
[QUOTE]
Solomon tried to swim back a couple of times but he disappeared into the water quickly," he said, adding that this part of the Tiber is full of rapids and rocks.