Teach your children well

Normally we would urge parents of college students not to hover around, but to let your children off their leashes a bit more than many of us are accustomed to these days. However, today is not a normal day - Elvira's cousin lost a son in a traffic accident on Thursday; the son was just 21 years old. And there is another report of students being shot, this time at Duquesne in Pennsylvania. That's the second campus shooting this month; never mind all the reports of shootings and real plans for real violence and mayhem at high schools around the country. There was even a high school student here in Bloomington who was arrested the other day and charged with bringing a gun to school.

We just called our kids to tell them we love them, and to remind them to drive very carefully all the time.

Since we're all concerned about safety, we'll admit that we've gotten some complaints from students about long waits for the campus escort service. This is a volunteer, student-run service that provides a ride home or a walking escort for anyone who does not feel comfortable walking back to the dorm alone at night. However, they do get over-booked and they can take a long time to show up - remind your kids this is not an emergency service! In an emergency, tell your kids to call 9-1-1, even from a cell phone.

Do you know why most public phones have big stickers that say EMERGENCY 9-1-1 in bold red letters? Because in an emergency people have been known to forget the number. They will even say, "I can't remember the number for 9-1-1." At least that's what they told us during IU's emergency training.