Natalee Holloway: A Wake-Up Call to Parents to Protect Children
How the plight of this 18-year old has changed the way parents feel about the safety of their children, and what they are doing to protect them.
(PRWEB) August 12, 2005 -- The search for Natalee Holloway has entered its third month and officials seem no closer to cracking the case than they were three months ago. In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Beth Holloway Twitty criticized the direction of her daughters investigation, stating "I still don't feel like this investigation is heading in the right direction."
For those not familiar with Natalees disappearance, she is an 18-year-old girl who embarked on a post-graduation trip - a celebration vacation that many students engage in upon the completion of high school - traveling with friends to the Caribbean island of Aruba. She checked into the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, and was last seen on May 30, 2005, leaving Carlos 'n Charlie's, a highly popular tourist nightspot know for wild partying, heavy drinking, and sexual antics. She drove off with three young men, all Aruba locals, who initially reported that they dropped her off at her hotel, but have since changed their descriptions of that evenings events.
As parents follow this story, concern for the safety of their children has resulted in the surfacing of a new trend that is increasing in popularity -- life insurance for children and teens. Though not a subject that parents want to equate with their child, the issuance of life insurance policies for college-aged children has increased as recent events remind us of the risks our children face.
Complete Life Quote, Inc., www.completelifequote.com, is a national Internet life insurance company that has been servicing the life insurance industry since 1915. Their family-owned and operated business of three generations has noticed an increase in the issuance of life insurance policies for children.
According to their president, Guy Cardinale, Parents have recently become much more interested in life insurance for their children as well as for themselves, and are buying policies for children at much younger ages. With the end of summer approaching, life insurance for college-bound children has become a major consideration."
David Strickler of Minister, Ohio, recently purchased a $150,000 life insurance policy to protect himself financially in the event that his college-bound son, Alexander, should meet with foul play. He told Complete Life Quote, With the way things are in society these days - with alcohol, drugs, etc., and with what has happened to other children like Natalee Halloway, I made the decision to ensure that, if something happens to Alexander, the expenses for his tuition and burial will be taken care of. The reality is that you really never know what is going to happen."
And though no one is exactly sure what happened to Natalee, message boards throughout the Internet, including http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2005/06/natalee_hollowa_7.php, consider her disappearance to be an incident of date rape, possibly combined with the use of alcohol and what are commonly referred to as date rape" drugs.
Date rape and binge drinking are major concerns for parents with children entering college. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Task Force on College Drinking, reports that drinking by college students between the ages 18 to 24 contributes to an estimated 70,000 cases of sexual assaults or date rapes,1,400 deaths, and 500,000 injuries each year. For more information about this study, visit http://www.prev.org/.
One of the most widely used date rape drugs is Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), and its victims are generally young women between the ages of 17 - 23. These drugs typically come in pill form, and when slipped into a drink leave no detectable taste, color or odor, and take effect in 15 minutes to one hour. Effects can last up to eight hours, and include visual disturbance, drowsiness, confusion, dizziness, motion difficulty, and amnesia, which can last up to eight hours.
Knowing how to identify these effects are crucial, and as frightening as date rape is, there are ways to protect yourself. Drink testing kits are available at various websites, and safety tips include never leaving your drink unattended, never accepting drinks you did not see prepared, keeping a protective hand over your cup, and seeking help if you become severely intoxicated after only one or two drinks.
With binge drinking and date rape concerns, quality of education is commonly combined with social aspects such as the ratio of males to females (or females to males), the nightlife, and the party scene, when deciding what college to attend. A poll recently conducted by Playboy lists the top 5 U.S. party schools as:
1) Arizona State University
2) California State - Chico
3) Rollins
4) Louisiana State
5) West Virginia
The recent draining of a pond in Aruba and the prior scouring of their local garbage dump in an attempt to find answers to Natalees disappearance are grim reminders to all parents that the risk of loosing a child exists. Once in college, not much can be done to protect them, and unfortunately, what happens is often out of a their control, and in the control of intoxicating substances or date rape drugs.
We found two very informative websites with information about date rape, http://teenadvice.about.com/od/daterape/, and www.daterape.com. Both provide advice and tips on what to do to protect yourself or your child.
More information about Complete Life Quote, Inc., and about life insurance in general is available on their web site, http://www.completelifequote.com, or by calling 1-800-293-4859.
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