ClearCause Video Testimonial from Elizabeth Brenner

“He was beautiful. He was perfect. He was my world.”

Elizabeth Brenner’s testimonial in honor of her son Thomas Plotkin is a heart-wrenching story told here in a video produced by TCA Media.

Thomas died while studying abroad in India through the National Outdoor Leadership School through the University of Iowa on September 22, 2011. The reports issued by both the study abroad program and the government of India concerning his death did not match up. His death was 100% preventable. Read his story here.

“The study abroad industry is a growing industry, and there are no laws that regulate it,” Elizabeth says in her testimonial. “I support ClearCause because they are seeking oversight, regulation, transparency, guidelines – all the things we expect would be in place.”

Watch Elizabeth’s testimonial below to hear how one mother was affected by the death of her son, and what she wants to do about it now.

http://youtu.be/IfD0ZKt4e2w

Will you be a Voice for ClearCause? Click here.

“India: The Story You Never Wanted to Hear” – One Student’s Account of Studying Abroad

A CNN article tells the story of Michaela Cross, an American student who experienced serious sexual harassment during her study abroad trip to India. The article reported that after Cross returned to the States, she was “diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and is now on a mental leave of absence from school after a public breakdown in the spring.” Cross titled her story “India: The Story You Never Wanted to Hear” and made it public by posting it on CNN IReport.

Similar to the tragically recent story of the college student who was murdered while in India reported by India Today, Cross was groped, stalked, and masturbated at, along with other nightmares. At one point in her study abroad trip, she called two rape attempts in 48 hours.

“Her story sparked a wave of reaction online, with scores of Indians responding, many with sympathy to her plight and pointing out that Indian women also experience high levels of harassment and abuse,” the article reported.

"Truth is a gift, a burden, and a responsibility. And I mean to share it," Cross wrote in her story. "This is the story you don't want to hear when you ask me about India. But this is the story you need."

Read more about Michaela Cross’ study abroad trip in India here.

ClearCause College Safety Tips

School starts up again soon, and we think safety on college campuses is crucial! We picked out some of our favorite tips for safety on college campuses from Gustavus Adolphus College and added a few of our own. These simple safety tips could help you stay aware of your surroundings and avoid any danger.

1. Be aware while walking around on campus! Avoid traveling alone at night and confine walking to well-lit, regular traveled walks and pathways.

2. Don’t text while you walk! You should always be paying attention to what is around you to keep yourself safe.

3. If you think you are being followed, cross the street and, if necessary, keep crossing back and forth. If you are pursued, call for help and run to a campus building, business, residence, enlist the aid of a passerby, flag down a passing motorist, or as a last resort pull a fire alarm. Do anything that might attract attention or summon assistance. If you are walking alone and someone passes you, check to be sure the person has continued walking in the other direction.

4. When walking to your vehicle or residence, have your keys ready in hand. When parking, choose a well-lit, heavily traveled area.

5. Use the React Mobile app to report any criminal activity and warn others around you.

6. When being dropped off by taxi or private vehicle, ask the driver to wait until you get inside.

7. If you drink alcohol, make sure you are aware of how much you can handle and don’t let strangers pour you drinks.

8. Before going to a party, tell a friend where you’re going and when you’ll be back. Let them know if your plans change.

9. Don’t leave your drink alone or with someone you don’t know.

10. Plan your transportation home accordingly. Don’t drive with drunk or drugged drivers.

11. When walking to your vehicle or residence, have your keys ready in hand.

12. If, while waiting for an elevator, you find yourself alone with a stranger, let him take the elevator and wait for its return. Always stand near the control panel of the elevator, where you have access to the alarm and floor buttons.

13. If you find yourself confronted by an assailant you must remember: screaming and struggling may in some instances frighten off an assailant, in other instances such action may further antagonize an assailant and bring forth a more violent action.

14. Never sleep in an unlocked room or house. Students in private residences should consider installing "peep holes" and intruder chains on outside doors. Also, if returning after dark, leave a light on at the entrance to your residence.

15. Use laptop security locks and drawer locks in your dorm or apartment to keep your stuff safe.

16. Invest in a safe to keep your valuables secure in your dorm or apartment.

17. Do not study in poorly lit or secluded areas.

18. Always lock up your bicycle. If you must leave your bicycle outside, choose a well-lit, heavily traveled location.

100,000 Strong Initiative

Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Dr. Brian Whalen, President and CEO of the Forum on Education Abroad asking for his support of President Obama’s “100,000 Strong” initiative.

Clinton highlights President Obama’s goal of increasing the number of American college students studying abroad in China by “building up a cadre of Americans knowledgeable about Chinese history, culture and language – a generation of Americans who study China and have studied in China.”

“Today, I offer this challenge to the leaders of American institutes of higher education and study-abroad providers: Double the number of your students who study in China by 2014…the Department of State is endeavoring to encourage a broad cross-section of American educational institutions and private-sector donors to support this effort,” she wrote.

Yet without qualified health and safety sanctions to protect students who go overseas, these 100,000 students may be in danger. If you agree that there needs to be laws to protect students who tread on foreign soil, click on ClearCause Voices to the right to send a message to your federal and state policy makers. This small action makes a difference and could save students’ lives.

Read Clinton's letter here: 100000-Strong-Initiative

Read some of their stories:

Tyler Hill

Thomas Plotkin  

Ravi Thackurdeen

Zoe Damon 

Joshua Shane 

End sexual assaults on college campuses - Video

Nearly 1 in 5 college women experienced a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault since starting college.

Yale University graduate Alexandra Brodsky and S. Daniel Carter, a college and university campus safety advocate are interviewed by MSNBC’s Craig Melvin in this video about how sexual violence can be ended on college campuses.

There are currently 28 schools under scrutiny for sexual violence, and the list includes Dartmouth, University of North Carolina, Princeton, and Harvard Law. S. Daniel Carter said that the issue of sexual violence is a widespread issue.

Brodsky said the real problem is that schools are viewing sexual violence as a PR problem, instead of an issue of public safety and sexism. “They don’t really have the interest of the survivor at heart, they have the interests of the school’s statistics or the school’s fundraising,” she said in the video. “When people know that students who cheat are suspended for longer than students that rape their classmates, that sends the message that sexual violence isn’t that big of a deal.”

This video highlights a quote that Brodsky wrote when she tried to report an attempted rape.” In short, I was told to be a good girl. And for four years, I listened...because of our insistence on the femininity of victims, even male and genderqueer survivors are held to the good girl standard,” she wrote.

Brodsky explained that the Good Girl Standard women are always taught to be accommodating and to make the lives of men as easy as possible, but at a certain point, women need to be loud and angry to make sure their future is safer,” she said.

The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SAVE) is expanding requirements to include intimate partner violence and stalking and expands victim’s procedural rights, according to Carter. “Most importantly, the SAVE Act requires institutions to provide primary prevention education, which instead of treating the disease it inoculates against it. We want to change the culture on the front end that tolerates sexual violence so that we can actually begin to cut down on these numbers,” Carter said. ”We want to start changing these cultural barriers so that more victims will come forward and we can start addressing these problems.”

The SAVE Act requires University officials to report sexual offenses to law enforcement authorities and provide contact information and legal, counseling, health and advocacy services to victims. The SAVE Act will be enforced starting in the fall of 2014. RAINN is another anti-sexual violence organization that is fighting sexual assault.

Watch the video here.

Forum on Education Abroad Launches Optional Critical Incident Database

The Critical Incident Database (CID) tool has just been launched for use in tracking critical incidents that happen when students are abroad, according to the Forum on Education Abroad. After much feedback and adjustments, the Forum will launch the live and final version of the CID on August 15, 2013.

The tool also can be used for tracking required information on incidents that should be reported for a member’s Annual Security Report as required by the Department of Education in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (the Clery Act).

The article listed three reasons that intuitions and organizations will want to use the CID tool:

1. An easy and convenient way to track what happens to your students while off campus (types of incidents, locations, etc.);
2. A reliable method to identify which incidents should be reported in your Annual Security Report to the Department of Education to comply with the Clery Act; and
3. A way to help the field track critical incidents so that risk management decisions about education abroad programs can be made using appropriate data.

The Forum is providing a free online demonstration of the CID on Monday, August 19, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. (EST). Go to the article for more information.

ClearCause would like to see mandated reporting and complete transparency.  We feel students and families have the right to know. We do like seeing this optional beginning.

Mental Health Awareness While Abroad

Robert Quigley, MD, D. Phil and Regional Medical Director, Americas Region for International SOS, found that often the stressful transition of moving into a new environment and new routine can cause underlying mental health issues to rise to the surface for students studying abroad. He wrote an article about this topic in the Huffington Post.

Quigley reported that students studying abroad are 23 times more likely to need repatriation assistance for mental health conditions than other travelers. ”It's especially concerning given that the number of students studying abroad is increasing each year,” Quigley wrote.

The number of international students coming into the U.S. last year has increased by 5.7 percent in 2011-2012 alone. The number of American studying overseas has grown from 114,000 in 1997-1998 to 274,000 in 2010-2011, according to the article.

To help solve this issue, Quigley wrote that first students and their families must understand that moving to college is a major life transitions for many students. This can bring up psychological difficulties or even create new problems for some. Later moving away from all family and peer support to study abroad within a new place with high academic standards can also cause deeper student depression or anxiety.

“The study abroad student may lack the emotional and cross-cultural coping skills to adapt or function in his or her chosen program. In some cases, the student could have a predisposition to mental illness and the stress of the "new" environment may actually trigger the problem,” Quigley reported in the article.

Quigley recommends that any student considering a studying abroad program should be honest with their school and parents regarding any existing mental health issues. Students also should confirm that their insurance provides mental health benefits while they are abroad. “Mental health resources may be extremely limited, if available at all. Even when services are available, the language barrier can easily preclude access,” Quigley wrote.

Quigley believes that all schools should provide access to educational support for students who want to study abroad. “To provide awareness, the student -- and parents or guardian -- should take an e-learning course that outlines various cultural issues and laws, as well as the signs and symptoms of common mental illnesses,” he said. Quigley also wrote that the home campus officials should help determine which study abroad location best serves each student’s needs.

“Scholastic duty of care is a dynamic responsibility. The home institution must continue to provide ongoing education to the students, as well as to the accompanying faculty, in the recognition and management of mental illnesses. Adherence to such a strategy will certainly help to mitigate the risk of a failed study abroad experience. And maybe it will help prevent unnecessary deaths,” he concluded.

Read the entire article here.

The Danger of Rip Currents – A Mother’s Loss

An article from the Tico Times describes the pain-filled grief of one mother who lost her 19-year-old son in a rip current while on a study abroad program to Costa Rica in 2012.

Ros Thackurdeen’s son, Ravi Thackurdeen, was studying abroad with the Organization for Tropical Studies/Duke University’s Global Health program when he was caught in a riptide on a beach in Playa Tortuga. There were no lifeguards, and he was dragged out to sea and killed. Read Ravi’s story here.

“Rav treaded water for more than half an hour…He was wading in hip-height water when he was pulled out by a rip current. The tourists on the beach said if they had a piece of rope, they could have saved my son. Those responsible for him on the trip watched him fight for his life and listened to his cries for help. With no safety gear or working communication devices, nobody could help,” Ros wrote in the article.

Ros explained that the family learned afterwards that drowning is the leading cause of death in Costa Rica, which is notorious for rip currents. “We learned that even an Olympic swimmer cannot resist the pull of a typical rip current,” she wrote.

To prove her point, Ros provided a horrifyingly long list of individuals who were also dragged out to sea and killed by rip currents.

Curtis Chase	Gabriel Eric Moore
Dr. Brian Sumner	Marshuan Braxton
Brian Anthony Maltez	Garapaty Sthitha Prajna
Dr. Robert K. Herbert	Steve Hershberger
Dylan Smith	Danell Zimmerman
Rhiannon Joy Hull	Jermaine Zimmerman
Penny Obee	Michael Mckinsley
Alfred Kobe Storay	Serge Seguin
Dorothy Paradis	Scott W. Schneider
Richard A. and James M. Campbell	Dean Hugh Heywood
Marcus Maurice Mack	Matt Garber
Erik L. Downes	Steve Tanaka
Aly Zain Lakdawala	Kai Lamar
Jay Kennedy	City Noelle Jones
Matt McParland	James Erik Smith
John Rutledge	James Campbell
Jeremy Porfirio	Garcia Barboza
Danielle Tongier	Tony Leech
Andrew Harpstrite	Brett Carlson
Jessica Pierce	Skuglud Mauricio Alberto Acuña

(Actor Danny DeVito nearly drowned in a rip current on a family vacation.)

“We learned recently that the U.S. Embassy in San José has strengthened a warning about rip currents on its website,” Ros wrote at the end of the article.

Read Ros’ story to see how one family’s beloved son was torn away by a strong rip current in Playa Tortuga.

Written by N. Losik.