Would it happen if alcohol wasn't involved?

Rates are higher for death, drunk driving, injury, and police involvement when people are under the influence of alcohol. Students are typically binge drinkers before they come to college. However, when they get here and their peers bombard them with the mass amounts of alcohol they can consume, they do not know when they have reached their limit. People who do not have much experience with drinking alcohol generally do not know how to behave responsibly. Especially when they come right out of highschool and there 17-18 years of age.

If you are caught underage drinking or providing alcoholic beverages to minors on campus it can lead to parental notification, mandatory counseling and suspension or dismissal from the university or from university housing. If your willing to underage drink, you had better be willing to accept the consequences if you are caught. Campus authorities are not the only people you need to worry about when you are under the influence. Police are knowledgable and ready to find and convict anyone who is underage and driving under the influence or is found intoxicated while in public. On a typical Tuesday night you can drive from Charles Street to Osler and find three cops at different locations ready to make their mark. 2.1 million students between the ages of 18-24 were arrested for driving under the influence in 2002. 1, 700 students between the ages of 18-24 die in alcohol related car accidents every year. 599, 000 students are unintentionally injured. Most college students who are underage will drink and the majority of them do get away with it. Drinking is a difficult situation to stray away from while at college because the larger perecentage of students do it. If you choose to drink there are many precautions you can take to make sure that you are drinking responsibly.

First, there is no reason to ever get behind the wheel while intoxicated. You are not only threatening the life of yourself but the lives of those around you or in the car with you. Public transportation is always an option. Cab fares are managable if you travel in a larger group. It is more responsible to pay that extra four dollars on a ride home, then letting your drunk friend tell you that they did not have that much to drink that night. Those four or five dollars would probably have been spent at Mcdonalds the next morning, which are calories that you don't need anyway. Another way to avoid this type of scenario is by making prior arrangements with who your illeged transportation is going to be, like having a sober friend drop and pick you up. A designated driver is hard to come by because no one generally wants to play that role. If you are of age you need to remember that in all 50 states of America your blood alcohol concentration cannot be any higher then .08%; otherwise they are hauling you in the clinger. 2.1 million students drive under the influence each year. Don't be another statistic. Play safe. Drink Responsibly! :)

http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/StatsSummaries/snapshot.aspx

Were very close to real danger.

As most of you have probably heard, a 22 year old male was killed in his apartment last weekend. Police state that he was shot to death. Supposedly he lived alone. He lived in the Fairways community that is off of Goucher Boulevard. I don't believe that anyone should live alone; unless they have proper security in the building that they live in. Also for the fact that in light of a lack of security; a roomate could have helped prevented this trajedy. I wen't and did homework with my friend for a few hours because she was afraid to be alone in her apartment while her roomate was at work. Baltimore's crime rate drastically reduced in 2009 by 22% In 2008 Baltimore had a total of 28 homocides. There has already been 3 shootings since 2009 began.

-http://outside.in/Baltimore_MD/tags/murder%20rate

Real-Life Horror Story

I went with my roommate last week to a new club in Baltimore called Bourbon Street. I met one of her friends, who told me a story about a girl she knew. She told me that this girl was only 18 years old and was attending her first semester at Loyola University. The girl went to Bourbon Street for the first time two weeks earlier. That same night she met a guy there and he bought her a drink. The next thing she knew she was lost on some street in Annapolis. The guy had drugged her drink. He forced her out of the club and into his van where he rapped her. He drove to Annapolis and left her there alone and abandoned. Traumatized by the experience, the girl never went back to school.This story is horrifying, and its more likely to happen then you might think. Girls must be precautious; you do not know who you can trust these days. Predators are out there and they're looking for the first innocent girl who looks the least bit trustworthy. A rape occurs approximately once every eight minutes. About 67% of all rapists are known by their victims in some way, only 33% are complete strangers. My mom has always told me "Watch your drink, watch your drink." You never think it can happen, until it happens to you. Make sure to always look out for yourself and your fellow sisters.

-http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9691/r4.html

Verbal Abuse

Women are commonly subjected to verbal abuse as often or more then physical abuse. Any attempts by another person to "isolate, threaten or intimidate" you is forms of emotional abuse. You should take this kind of commication seriously because it can generate to a more worse scenario. Under certain circumstances you can be protected under the "fighting words doctrine." You have the right to physically protect yourself if someone is doing you verbal harm. If you are typically a level-headed person and someone is verbally harrassing you; if in response you hit him then you can be protected under the "fighting words doctrine." So ladies if a guy is drawing the line; don't be hesitant to react in a physical manner. You can't let men impaticular verbally abuse you until there may be nothing left of your self-esteem. Confrontation is important before the victimizer is lead to believe that this kind of behavior is allowed.

-http://www.mtoomey.com/womenasvictims.html