Self-defense weapon, ‘chemicals’ cannot be used by students

It’s midnight. You just got back to school from the state championship. Your car is still in the junior lot a few blocks away, so you and some friends start the three-block journey. The only light emanates from the front door of the Creighton dorms. Someone’s sitting a few yards away under the overpass. The trip to your car only takes a few minutes, but you’re filled with tension and, though you don’t want to admit it, fear.

Dozens of students experience this. The walk to the junior lot is relatively long and the path isn’t lit very well. 20th Street doesn’t have much traffic and the underpasses create pockets of shadow. It can be a sketchy walk late at night. It makes sense for a student to feel unsafe. But Dr. Ed Bennett assured that such an event has never happened.

“I can’t remember one documented case of a student who was injured on the way to the junior lot by and outsider,” Bennett said. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t care. It doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen tomorrow. It doesn’t mean that when students walk down there that they’re suddenly feeling much safer because nothing has ever happened.”

And many students don’t feel safer which leads them to take precautions. Junior Kaitlyn Engel has a rape pull attached to her backpack: a small device that emits a wailing when yanked, creating the same effect and serves the same purpose as a rape whistle.

“If it’s at night, I feel safer because I know that there’s another level of security,” Engel said. “It makes feel a little more secure, just having something that will let people know where I am and hopefully scare off a rapist or a criminal.”

The same effect can be achieved by a car alarm. Keeping your key fob in hand as you walk to your car allows you to set off the panic alarm if you are attacked or if you see your car being broken into.

While such a device is a good defense mentally, if one wishes to fight off an attacker, they don’t have much to work with. The OPS Code of Conduct states that “students are forbidden knowingly and intentionally to possess, handle, transmit or use any instrument that is generally considered a weapon.” This includes “any object which could be used to injure another person: notably guns, knives of any kind, brass knuckles and “chemicals,” an inclusion that bans pepper spray or mace. The use of these items, even in defense, is grounds for suspension.

In the case that a student is punished for using an item for self-defense, Bennett said, “I would hope that there would be a modicum of reason used.” If one feels the need to defend themselves physically, they could follow in some novel footsteps.

“In the back of my car I have three pool noodles, a foam bat and a golf club,” Engel said. “The golf club really is just in case something goes really bad.”

She claimed that the club can be used as an intimidation device, as well as to punch out her break lights if she gets stuffed in her trunk. Since the golf club is kept in her car and isn’t generally a violent device, Engel is allowed to have it. Of course, this also means it isn’t readily available to her if she’s away from her car. The next best weapon anyone has is common sense. Don’t walk to the parking lots alone at night and be aware of your surroundings – that means earbuds out and keys in hand. Walk confidently and avoid particularly dark areas.

“It is Creighton,” Bennett said. “It’s an education institution. There are not bars, restaurants, abandoned lots along that area … I think that probably contributes to why we haven’t had any documented problems.” Self