{"id":3221,"date":"2016-03-10T19:45:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T03:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=3221"},"modified":"2016-03-10T19:45:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T03:45:53","slug":"tips-safe-spring-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/tips-safe-spring-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for a safe spring break"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Alvin Wilson \r\nStaff Writer<\/pre>\n
Spring break is just around the corner, and many of us are anxious to leave campus and celebrate our time off the college way: with alcohol. <\/p>\n
But before you hop in your car and say bottoms up, you should probably stop to consider a few things.<\/p>\n
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) published a study that shows nearly half of all college students binge-drink. <\/p>\n
Binge-drinking is defined as drinking five or more drinks within a two-hour period. <\/p>\n
Trever Jackson, Campus Public Safety officer for Western, says that excessive drinking is a problem even when it\u2019s not spring break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a lot of people who become too intoxicated and end up causing problems,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople will drink, then take it too far, and it becomes unsafe for them and other people. We end up having to deal with that quite a bit on breaks as much as any other time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca Chiles, director of Public Safety, says the biggest things to keep in mind are your choices concerning alcohol and drug use.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we get a little relaxed, or comfortable, with groups of people when we\u2019re having a good time,\u201d she says. \u201cThen you wake up the next morning and your phone\u2019s missing, or your laptop\u2019s missing, or your wallet full of money\u2019s missing. I think just be vigilant about the people you\u2019re with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chiles says it\u2019s important to surround yourself with people you feel safe with to reduce the risk of dangerous situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to drink, so my best advice is to do it with someone you know and love and trust,\u201d she says. \u201cHave a designated person who\u2019s going to be the safety person and look out for everybody\u2014someone who will have your back and take care of you if a safety situation arises \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen Risen, Occupational Environmental Safety Officer for Campus Public Safety, says another important thing to consider is travelling.<\/p>\n
He says that during spring break, most of the students leave campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cCampus is pretty much dead,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of the students who live on campus are gone … Usually everything\u2019s pretty quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Risen says that if you choose to travel, pack a blanket and extra water in case of an emergency, and make sure your belongings are locked up tight at home.<\/p>\n
Officer Jackson also offers some words of advice about travelling during the break:<\/p>\n
\u201cBe in contact with your loved ones. Let them know when you\u2019re leaving, what route you\u2019re taking, how you\u2019re getting there, when you arrive. If you\u2019re travelling in your own vehicle, make sure it\u2019s travel-worthy.\u201d <\/p>\n
The last thing you want is to be stranded on a highway in the middle of nowhere. Jackson mentioned that some car shops will do free \u201ctrip checks\u201d to make sure your car is able to handle a road trip. <\/p>\n
Your local Les Schwab is one such place. They will check everything from your tires and brakes to your oil\u2014all for free (but, of course, they won\u2019t fix anything for free).<\/p>\n
Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring break is just around the corner, and many of us are anxious to leave campus and celebrate our time off the college way: with alcohol. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}