This is a sponsored feature. All opinions are 100% from Her Campus.
It’s spooky szn and you know what that means. Candy, parties, and tons of Trick or treating. Before you go out, make sure you have some of these I mind.
Be careful of what you eat.
Not everyone will be out there handing out candy. So, make sure that what you are taking from strangers is wrapped and with a label you recognize.
Watch out for strangers.
This day can go from bad to ugly in just a matter of seconds. Expect for random people in costumes to scare you, but make sure you aren’t being followed by anyone
Be aware of your surroundings.
Move in groups, remain in well-lit areas and away from dark alleys. If possible refrain from being outdoors and alone in late hours.
Here are some tips, courtesy of our schools LiveWell organization:
For this Halloween, I decided to go to the best for advice on how to stay safe while going out. I interviewed two of the campus safety officers here at UT. Officer Newman, a retired cop of the Chicago police department and Officer Wolff a retired cop of the New York state police department (with military training). Together these two have 5 years of experience working for the University of Tampa. They sat down with me sat down with me (and Her Campus UT) to gives us some detailed advice.
Here some tips from the experts:
- Have a charged cell phone with you at all times
- Valid ID in the instance that you do become ill so that you can be helped out
- Watch your drinks
- SABRE offers a Drink Test Kit that allows you to check for GHB and Ketamine in your alcoholic drink
- Make sure your Uber matches his description on the app
- In case of a major emergency remember CUPS: cold skin, unresponsive, puking, and slow breathing (these are all signs of alcohol poisoning).
Since most of our readers are girls, I asked for some tips for our Female students. Here’s what they said:
- Watch your BAC (how much you’re drinking). We have an open campus and it’s not rare to have strangers walking around. We’ve had instances where outsiders end up roaming around inside residence halls.
- Don’t just watch what you drink, watch what you eat too (it can be roofied).
- You are free to dress how you’d like but most of our students tend to take that (and the warm weather we have year-round) to a whole other level. Keep in mind that there are MANY sex offenders and registered rapists in this area. Seeing you half dressed in lingerie might attract these kinds of people. So just be very cautious.
If the situation comes to you or any of your friends have to take action against someone, here’s what you can in case of an emergency.
- Pepper spray is a popular tool carried by many women
- Sabre carries multiple self-defense products to help protect you.
- Use your keys to as claws
- Place them in between your fingers to protect yourself
- Scream/yell as loud as you can.
- SABRE personal alarm. SABRE offers two kinds of alarms that are loud enough to be heard 600ft away. One has an LED light and can be clipped to your bad or belt. Another is a key ring (can be attached to your keys).
- Yell “Fire” (instead of “rape”). Sadly, people are more likely to pay attention and take precaution when they hear this.
This article is Sponsored by SABRE. Thank you for reading.