10 safety tips for my girls going back to college:
1. Always practice situational awareness and be aware of your surroundings. Remember that a distracted person is a very easy target.
2. Always lock your doors and windows. This includes your car doors, your dorm door, you name it, and get in the habit of doing this because it's something that's very small, takes up a very short amount of time, and it could very well save your life.
3. Avoid walking alone at night, utilize campus shuttle services, and implement the buddy system. Also, always have a check-in person, this could be a friend, your mom, or a family member. Regardless of who this is, this person should hear from you every single night when you're home safe.
4. Keep your personal information private. This is especially important for social media and make sure that you're never posting in real time. This also means making sure that you never leave any packages facing label up in your car or have a lanyard with your full name on it facing up as well. Bottom line, no personal information is out in the open.
5. Invest in some personal safety gadgets, upper jaw and mace are great options as well as a personal keychain alarm.
6. Keep all your emergency contacts as well as campus security stored in your phone.
7. Never leave your drink unattended. And if that drink ever leaves your line of vision, get a new one. Also, as tempting as it might be, don't go accepting random drinks from random guys.
8. As always, be cautious and thorough when using apps like Uber and Lyft. And make damn sure that you're getting in the car that you're supposed to be getting in. Make sure that the license plate matches what it says on the app.
9. Pay attention and take note of where you could find those emergency call boxes located around campus. For whatever reason you find yourself in a situation where you no longer have a cell phone, it dies, you drop it, you break it, you want to know where these are.
10. Create a trusted community of friends. Get in the habit of communicating your whereabouts with this group of friends so that you guys can watch each other's backs and look out for one another.