There is some excellent advice on this thread. Yes, we need to teach our kids personal safety from a very young age, sadly.
I’d like to add, people should always be alert to potential dangers. Many many assaults are not ones involving strangers. Our kids need to know when they need to get out of a tough situation, and how. And fast.
I agree, students should never walk around alone. Even in broad daylight, there can be problems.
Good point! One thing we always reitierated with our kids is that anything CAN happen to anyone, no one is invincible. I think a lot of young kids think it can’t happen to them…lots of people think that, until it does.
There was a kid in D’s class who is paralyzed from the legs down, because he drove drunk. There was another kid who graduated the year I started teaching: he got drunk and went into the ocean for a swim. They had to get a helicopter to recover his body. He would be about 40 now. There was a girl in my nephew’s high school class who was among 3 kids killed in a car accident. The three kids who died where not wearing seatbelts. And a girl in D’s grade lost her younger brother in a drunk ATV accident. And there was my stepfather’s son who fell off a roof during a collge party and died. Again he’d be about 40 now too. And D had another friend who’s 18 year old half brother (he was a kid from her dad’s previous marriage) along with his girlfriend was killed by drunk driver while heading out on a camping trip.
And keep in mind these were all good, smart kids who would never hurt a fly, who had parents who told them to be careful and to use their best judgement. The best thing we can do as parents is to tell our kids to be careful, to make good decisions, to use their best judgement, to not drink to much and to not take drugs. Also, every action has consequences and poor decisions can affect other people in a negative way too. And no one is invincible.
@sbinaz, what’s drink cover?
That is a good thing to have. But I do want to pause a moment to really let it sink in that our (collective) daughters are having to protect themselves from our (collective) sons drugging and raping them. I feel like this is a much bigger problem than a scrunchie drink cover can address. How has it gotten to this point? 
@sbinaz, thank you!
How did we get here? Fraternities have been breeding grounds for rape culture for decades, it’s only in recent years that women and society have been speaking up against it, hence the movement to ban Greek life which has grown in the past 10-20 years. My mother-in-law, who attended UIUC in the 1950s, tells stories of joining the theater/stagecraft club in order to avoid having to go to the drunken parties her sorority and the associated frat hosted on weekend evenings (she had to commit her time to the theater performances on weekends, as a ready excuse to avoid the parties which were considered mandatory by her sorority). I remember even in the late 1980s protesting at “Take Back the Night” marches at my LAC, these were protests against rape/sexual assault in general, but date or frat party rape seemed to even then be the predominant type of sexual assault (at least among women I knew).
I don’t know the answer - is spiking drinks at the source an issue? In other words, the lid does you know good because the host or bar spiked it?
I definitely have no love for Greek life. I have been telling my kids from very young ages “never ever go to a frat party”. I am honestly shocked they still exist. I don’t think they are the only problem, but they are definitely part of the problem.
Mixed drinks may have more alcohol than expected.
But there can also be sexual predators who put “date rape drugs” into other people’s drinks to make them easier victims for rape.
A couple hundred years of:
“Boys will be boys”
“Girls should cover their body so as not to distract boys”
“If he bullies you that means that he likes you”
“It was just a [insert sexual assault type here]”
“Boys should take control”
It hasn’t “gotten to this point”, it has been like this forever. It was even worse in previous decades. The stigma that a woman suffers for having been raped is bad enough now. In the 1950s her life would have been ruined, while the guy was going to get off scot-free in most cases. Until recently it was legal for a man to rape his wife, and that was true until the divorce was finalized.
Juries will determine whether a man is guilty on rape trial not based on facts but on the victim’s sexual history. Even the slightest hint of impropriety on the part of the victim can result in the accused rapist being acquitted. It was far worse in previous decades.
Things aren’t worse today. Things that were regularly hidden or brushed aside are finally starting t be treated seriously. The increase in reporting and on prosecutions creates an illusion that things are getting worse, but they are not.
I’ve heard stories from my nephews - and probably read - where fraternities and sororities are matched up - and people “hook up.” I’m sure it’s not that black and white.
You hear stories of sororities - even with lawsuits - of the blow or blow.
Is this stuff real - I assume yes. But real in 2020?
When I read the other week about being pelted with beer cans…I just don’t understand how - any of this behavior - that anyone is agreeable to.
I know it was discussed - they why - but it’s just unfathomable.
I never went to a frat party at UT, thank goodness! My dorm was next to a frat house. I hated walking by it.
I think the larger issue is our culture around alcohol. I see the campus police reports for the college I work for and most reported sexual assaults occur in the residence halls.
I’m honestly not trying to defend fraternities, but my experience (admittedly as a guy) is that there are good and bad fraternities. I was a non-drinking brother at a fraternity 30 years ago. I staffed the root beer supply for non-drinkers attending our parties. We also had a rotating designated driver. We did not tolerate any behavior like that nor did we trust brothers who had been drinking to do the right thing. We were probably unusual, but not unique.
That said, I knew at least two frat houses on campus that I wouldn’t have allowed my worst enemy to visit, and we told everyone we knew about them. Most people knew their reputation, but their parties were still popular.
Hook up culture does not include putting drugs in drinks, rape, date rape…and all those things are alive and well in college as well as life after college.
That’s true.
My point was more - it’s like this frat and that sorority - the people hook up just because - they are meant as one - such as Frat A guy and Sorority A girl together . It’s just odd to me - that - they don’t meet who they meet wherever they meet - vs. it has to be this fraternity and sorority mixing…is what I was trying to say.
I just hear too many stories - or did from my nephew who was president of his fraternity.
I guess - because I’m not of the Tinder era or whatever the current app of choice is - yes that stuff happens each and every day all around me at home too. I’m just oblivious.
I never had the chance to swipe 
Wrong era.
Best line of Valentine’s Day: “I am not of the Tinder era” 
Apparently, there is show on Hulu called “Death in the Dorms” that seems relevant to this thread. Not sure if I’ll watch it, but thought I’d let people know.
Gosh, just saw the news report at UGA in my news feed. Last week, there was a report at VT. UIUC a few weeks ago. 
We saw the preview. I told my husband we are definitely Not watching that right now. Already an emotional time.