Do You Feel Safe At Night In Bloom?
At school you’re supposed to feel safe like it’s your second home, but it seems like this year at Bloomsburg, attacks and sexual assaults are becoming more and more common.
It all starts with a text message at 5 a.m. saying how there has been an assault and then it seems you see what happened everywhere you go through email or by the signs that are put up all around campus. As a girl, sometimes I wonder what I would do if that happened to me, but most of the time I push those thoughts aside thinking, “This could never happen to me.”
Walking back to your house alone…everyone has done it at some point. It’s not unusual to see people especially women walking home alone at night, going somewhere else or just going home. It’s not like you planned on being by yourself, but it ends up happening by itself or sometimes you decide that it’s a good idea when you’re wasted. But that’s when bad things can happen.
In the United States one in every six women has been the victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. This is a sobering realization because it actually can happen to you or someone you care about.
Channel 16 said, “Officers said since early November about eight women have come forward to say they have been grabbed and or groped.” This semester there has been many concerning incidents that have threatened students and especially women’s safety like when a man jumped out of the bushes trying to attack a woman on Chestnut Avenue and Fourth Street. The victim luckily got away but then a man was seen walking about campus with a knife mumbling to himself. Even though the man didn’t make any threats it seems pretty surreal that you could be put in a situation like that on campus.
The most recent crime at Bloomsburg was an armed robbery on March 5. Two men robbed the victim at knifepoint taking her possessions with them as they fled the scene in black sweatshirts.
Many of these suspects have not been caught but to prevent something like this happening to you or friends make sure to stay with your friends. If you can’t do that, make sure you tell them where you’re going no matter what time it is because at least someone knows where you are if anything were to happen. Also, trust your instincts because the majority of the time you know when something isn’t right.
Sexual assault can happen to one in every six women but you can try to stop this cycle and prevent this situation from ever happening to you.
