Behavior

I work at a college. It is a pretty large college, not ivy league or such, but huge. We also have a huge diverse population of teachers and students. While I could go on and on about faculty and their "specialness" that isn't what today is about.

I walk the campus a lot for exercise. I see a lot of behavior. Good and bad and WTF and were you raised in a sheep stall kind of behavior. Sometimes, kid are just being stupid kids, like the ones that were skateboarding in the back parking lot. That in iteslf wasn't such a big deal. The part that concerned me was that they were being pulled by a pick up truck while holding on to a tow strap to get that extra whip. As faculty/staff, we're not encouraged to challenge students on their behavior. We are told to call campus police and let them deal with it. While I find that a little annoying, I understand, it is a common sense thing because some of the students will really challenge you back, and if there is a "cultural difference" then you've got a whole other bag of worms when you are now being accused of not being tolerant of a different culture - although littering isn't a cultural thing, it is a common courtsey to NOT do it, but that's a different rant.

So yesterday, as I was walking i was noticing how many people were stopped in the middle of the parking lots blocking traffic and cars wanting to park, but their blinkers were on so that's okay, right? Meh, they weren't blocking me, so I wasn't concerned, they were either in their car or standing right outside their car visiting with friends. Not my problem, just thinking wow, one nice day outside and people forget they don't own the world.

Then I saw another car, no driver, but wait he was standing about 10 feet away from his car talking to a girl up on the main road - up a huge incline. He was persistent, come on, talk to me, come with me kind of thing. She was REALLY not happy and it wasn't a regular don't bother me tone in her voice, it was a you really scare me voice. Of course I didn't have my phone, so I drove over to the police station and sent them over. She did have a friend join her before I left and the friend was very persistent that said boy take a hike.

Then I wondered. Should I have gotten more involved? Should I have just led her away to safety? was there really a problem? My mommy/woman radar was going off at not a full fledged DING, DING, DING, but it was blipping.

Wonder if this is going to be a long spring and summer.