Ok fine. So follow the advice in the link. Send your daughter to an all-girls college with no greek life, no sports, and preferably in a dry county. I truly don’t know what else to tell you.
It’s not about my daughter or your daughter, it’s about all of our daughters and sons too.
SABRE 3-in-1 pepper spray. I assume she carries it in her backpack, but I have no control over that - can only provide and remind. One suggestion from an acquaintance who gifted the twin daughters of another gal was a sturdy whistle to put on your keychain (think “professional” level, metal, not plastic). Whistles are loud (probably louder than the typical scream) and will get someone’s attention - need to put that on the “stocking stuffer” list for D. One of the biggest safety tips we have pounded into her: do not walk around campus or beyond at dark by yourself. Period. There are escort services on campus that can be called after certain hours, or find someone in your class who lives in your dorm to walk home with. She (and we) also get safety/crime alerts for the campus and immediate area - information is power. D is not into the frat/sorority/party scene at this point, so that is one less area of concern.
A really good self-defense course. Course, not class.
That’s not proof, that news, with at least a dash of sensationalizing. The media writes about what people are interested in and talking about, and sexual assault on college campuses have gained renewed interest because of some high-profile cases. So the media publishes it, and it looks like there’s a rise/epidemic when maybe there’s not - or maybe the rates have been going down.
Moreover, the vast majority of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows. The estimate is that only 13 to 30 percent of sexual assaults are stranger assaults (it depends on what agency is estimating the information; the higher number is the FBI, the lower number is another agency I can’t remember at the moment). Pepper spray or whatever else isn’t going to help a young person who thinks they are safe with their assailant.
The best sexual assault avoidance tactics are teaching all young folks how to properly manage their drinking and participation in unsafe situations. Don’t get blackout drunk in places and around people you don’t know well (i.e., fraternity parties). Don’t let people stay at your house or follow you home that you don’t know well. Stay in groups, and take care of each other. Try to convince friends not to go home with randos. This, of course, will not completely prevent sexual assault - but it can reduce the amount of risk.
Besides, pepper spray really isn’t the greatest weapon to have - it’s extremely imprecise and the blowback from it in an open area could mean both victim and assailant are incapacitated (or worse, only the victim, if they use it wrong or the assailant gets it from them). A taser - with proper training on how to use it - would be a much better weapon.
The OP is no longer with us so maybe this thread can be closed?