Some Safety Thoughts From CompuDance
As a studio owner or teacher, you often leave the studio at night - sometimes late.  Many studios are located in shopping malls, and are open later than other businesses in the area.  In the winter, it is very dark when you close up and head for your car.  That's an ideal time for an attacker to do his thing.  So, here are some tips that you might consider.    
1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do: The elbow is the strongest point on your body.  If you are close enough to use it, do! 
2. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse, do not hand it to him.  Toss it away from you . . . chances are he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse.  Then, run like mad in the other direction. 
3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives. 
4. You may have a tendency to get into your car and just sit (doing your checkbook, or making a list, checking to make certain that you have everything, etc.).  Don't do this.  The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go.  The instant you get into your car, lock the doors and leave. 
5.  If someone is in the car with a gun to your head in the parking lot do not drive off!  Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car.  Your Air Bag will save you.  If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it.  As soon as the car crashes bail out and run.  It is better than having them find your body in some remote location. 
6.  A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
    a. Be aware: look around you; look into your car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat.
    b. If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Many serial killers attack
        their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.
    c. Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle, and the passenger side.  If a male is sitting
        alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or the studio, or another
        business in the shopping center that is open and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. 
7.  ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs.  Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at NIGHT!

8. Women, are always trying to be sympathetic.  Stop.  It may get you raped, or killed.  Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well-educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women.  He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked "for help" into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which was when he abducted his next victim. 
9. A lady heard a crying baby on her porch one night, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird.  The police told her, "Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door."
The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over.  The policeman said, "We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, do not open the door."  The bad guys can record a baby's cry to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby.  Do not open the door for a crying baby.  Call the police.

It is always better to be safe than sorry; and better paranoid than dead. 

CompuDance
Theatre Administration Consultants
San Antonio TX 78269-0722