Urban Legend about College Students

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Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Lights?

College campuses have been known to be popular breeding grounds for rumors. Ask any college student walking around a typical campus for the latest gossip, and they may flood you with more stories, quips, and anecdotes than you may have ever asked for. Some of these stories lead to codes and rules for living safely on campus, as urban legends about campus-related murders and crimes begin to circulate more frequently. In addition, these stories may deal with some supernatural elements. With the increased security alerts nationwide, caution is exercised in all circumstances and a bit of the anxiety and security alerts have spread to American colleges as well.

One of these urban legends deals with what happened to “two girls at some college.” A college student from University of Maryland, Baltimore County recites his tale about the murder of a young girl at an unnamed college. The storyteller is twenty, and currently lives in Rockville, Maryland. A Chinese-American student, he is majoring in the mechanical engineering field and “considers [himself] to be a normal guy.” Both his parents work in the restaurant industry. He told me the following story in a face-to-face interview:

I heard this from my friend about two girls at some college. I think they were like freshmen or something. But they lived together, I think in a dorm room together and one of them left the room, and the other one was sleeping. The girl who left, had left their door unlocked, and the lights off, and when she came back from the party she went straight to sleep in the dark. (Thinks to himself.) When she woke up, her friend was murdered and there was blood everywhere. I think later on they said t...

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... female victims in mind to raise safety awareness among female students living on college campuses. Women are primary victims of crimes more strongly influenced by the gender factor; they have been known to be easily overpowered by men (assuming the attacker is male!). A male victim may be able to fight back his attacker, but for a female it seems that their best line of defense is simply locking the door.

Works Cited

“Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Light?” Urban Legends & Superstitions. http://urbanlegendsonline.com/lightsoff.html

Dazey, Josh. “Campus puts students at undue risk: while restricting “basic natural rights”. Ifeminists. Feb 12, 2002. http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2002/0212b.html

Emery, David. “Halloween Campus Massacre ’98.” About. Oct 28, 1998. http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa102898.htm

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