Leah Walsh, a 29-year-old special education teacher from Long Island, NY, has been missing since Monday morning. Her abandoned car was found on the side of the road and appeared to have a flat tire. This is still considered a missing person investigation, however, it was reported by the Associated Press around noon today that an unidentified woman’s body was found approximately 13 miles from Walsh’s abandoned car. It has not yet been confirmed as of now whether the body was that of Walsh.

The cases of missing women have become much too common a scenario lately, and we cannot be too careful when we are out and about. The story of Leah Walsh should stand as a reminder to women everywhere that we must learn ways to protect ourselves and stay safe.

Here are some tips to protect yourself when you are alone at night, or even during daylight hours:

1. Always be aware. Know your surroundings and who is around the area. If you are walking along, do not talk on your phone or text your friends. Your lack of attention makes you an easy target for anyone wishing to harm you.

2. Carry pepper spray or mace and attach it to your keychain. When you are walking alone, always have it out and ready to spray. (And keep your keys out as well!) No, you will not accidentally spray yourself with it.

3. When going out to the bars or clubs do not carry huge, oversized purses (especially if living in a big city). These are perfect targets for muggers: they think that because the bag is bigger there is more cool and expensive stuff to steal. Read More »

It started like any other night. My roommates and I were too lazy to cook anything and too cold to leave the house for carry-out, so we ordered in some good greasy Chinese food. As the eight of us gathered around our kitchen table to dig in, I looked outside and noticed someone standing in the dark out on the driveway we shared with our next door neighbors.

“Look, Matt’s outside on the phone,” I called the rest of my roommates to the window.

The next door neighbors were a group of 8 boys that we were really close to. Seeing neighbor Matt outside, my roommates and I immediately started banging on the window and waving at him. Matt turned to look at us and we screamed and knocked a little harder. I started laughing; Matt was staring at us pretending to masturbate. [No, there is no really fun way to put that. And yes, it was really funny at the time.]

“I don’t think he’s pretending, Lauren” My roommate looked at me, concerned.

“Um. I don’t think that’s Matt,” another of my roommates chimed in. Read More »