From a bad date to stranger danger, a few bars and restaurants in South Florida have a new way to help women out of uncomfortable and seven threatening positions.
What We Know:
- The bars and restaurants experimenting with the idea are primarily in Boca Raton, Jupiter, and Fort Lauderdale. Staff hung posters in the women’s restrooms with a new drink called the “Owl Shot” that offers instructions to get out of an uncomfortable situation.
- Students at Florida Atlantic University worked with local bars to create a unified system for bar patrons to discreetly ask for help, CBS 12 reports. Alejandra Rodriguez, a member of the student government group, says she went door-to-door, asking local establishment if they would join the initiative.
- Three options of the “Owl Shot” are available, depending on what kind of help the patron needs from the bartender. The first is “neat,” where the bar staff will escort the woman to her car. Second, “on the rocks,” where the bar staff will call a ride for the patron. Third is “with time” and the bar staff will call the police.
- The shot was cleverly named after the school’s mascot. The FAU group hopes to keep expanding the program.
- Rodriguez told reporters, “Everyone’s on board, bar owners love it, the administration thinks it’s a great idea. There’s been really no negative response to it at all.”
‘Owl Shot’
Many bars & restaurants in the Boca, Ft. Laud area are giving women a way to discreetly alert bartenders if they’re in danger or uncomfortable on a date, or even by a stranger.@FloridaAtlantic Student Government made their own spin on it. @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/p4ahFmKDG3
— Luli Ortiz (@LuliOrtizCBS12) March 6, 2020
- “The launch of a safety initiative within the community has been long overdue,” Student Body President Kevin Buchanan and Vice President Celine Persaud said. “This initiative outlines the importance for students to continue feeling at home even when they’re out engaging with the local community.”
Rodriguez said students began reaching out to bars over the summer break of 2019 by printing and sharing the posters at local establishments. Some students reportedly put money into the initiative themselves to print more posters.
