I can’t get gas alone. I can’t go to the store alone. I can’t eat go eat alone. I can’t walk alone. Why? Because I’m a woman. 

Women have to learn how to stay safe around men—keep pepper spray, hold your keys between your fingers, share your location. The list is endless. Men get to just float along. 

Sarah Everard went missing on March 3 in London. She did everything women are told to do—walked on a well-lit road, called her boyfriend, wore bright colors and came home early. However, she was found dead by police a week later, according to the New York Times. 

Everard was allegedly kidnapped and killed by a police officer.  

In response, police advised women to stay home and be extra vigilant, according to a report by The Sun. 

This sparked controversy and protest around the world, which to led Baroness Jenny Jones proposing a 6 p.m. curfew for men that would “make women a lot safer.”

Some men began to use #NotAllMen to explain that not all men are bad, so they shouldn’t all be punished for one man’s action. 

Women suffer in silence daily. Yet, when men are slightly inconvenienced by a curfew, it’s a problem. 

Men have no right to be mad when 97% of women in the UK aged 18 to 24 have been victims of sexual harassment in public spaces, according to a report by the United Nations.  

If you think it’s just a problem in the UK, you’re wrong. 

Women aren’t safe anywhere—even here at ULM. 

One example is when many female students were approached on campus and through social media by a man named Vincent Robinson. 

Robinson asked female students if he could go to their dorms to shower.

This freaked female students out because they knew he had bad intentions. 

Robinson had been arrested and banned from ULM’s campus multiple times between 2017-2020 for trespassing and failure to register as a sex offender or child predator, according to the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office. 

However, many students had no idea this happened.  

Women don’t feel safe on the street, in stores, at restaurants or at school. 

Therefore, men have no right to be upset about a curfew. 

A curfew is only the tip of the iceberg. We must demand more. 

Men should be punished for their actions instead of women. 

Men need to be taught from a young age what makes women feel uncomfortable and unsafe. 

Women can only do so much. 

It’s time for men to own up to their mistakes, educate themselves and change. 

Stop punishing women for the actions of men. Educate men to be better men not women to be safer women.