College: You Can Save a Life Too

The excitement of sending your children to college is a feeling and an experience that is almost as exhilarating as giving birth. In a sense, it is giving birth to new opportunities intended for your children to succeed! Well, this is the hope of all parents. Unfortunately, the first quarter of a student’s college experience is laced with the dangerous hurdles that are truly death-defying. These dangers are so grim that the start of the year is known as the Red Zone! 

According to a 2019 USA Today report, more than half of rapes that happen at colleges, occur during the first semester–from day one until Thanksgiving break. Sadly, females are not the only victims. Hazing stunts result in the death of many young men often occur during this same period. Thus, the beginning of the school year has gained the calendar designation of the Red Zone.

The loss of a child is not the reason parents send their children off to school. The Clerys know this all too well. In 1986, the Clery family lost their one and only daughter, Jeanne Ann Clery, in her first year of college. She was taken by the brutality of rape and hate. After the painful loss of their daughter, the Clery family set out on a laborious national mission to save other children from similar college crimes. As a result, they founded Security on Campus. Over the years, it has grown to become an entire center, now renamed the Clery Center.

Though their daughter was in the other 50% of students who are taken from us throughout the year, Mrs. Clery is determined to help all parents experience a positive college life transition with their children.

Now, 90 years on, she wants to wake our nation to an issue that takes the lives of young adult children. Our national focus is on abortion rights and we claim that all lives matter, and sadly, as Mrs. Clery pointed out, “We lost many friends when we went after colleges and requested more stringent safety policies for all students.” When money is involved and large organizations stand to lose that, the concern for life becomes perilously clear: money appears to be more important at the end of the day. Yet, that fact never stopped the Clery’s. They raised awareness in all 50 states. Their efforts led them all the way to the White House where they succeeded in getting President George Herbert Walker Bush to sign the Jeanne Clery Act into Law. “He was a good man. He never let the powerful lobbyist influence his decision to do the right thing.” 

Mrs. Clery has initiated what she calls her, “last stand,” the REACH Act. This act will make the current form of hazing a crime and require colleges to provide prevention education. Her battle is uphill, but she believes that all the parents and good people in our nation will ultimately support her current mission to create a law that protects students’ lives during the process of hazing. You can help by clicking on the button below and connecting with your local congressional office representative. Making a difference in another child’s life is only a click away.

Click below to endorse the REACH Act.