The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs became the subject of intense social media backlash this week after a student journalist found a ridiculous tip list for women to use to avoid being raped.
The university billed the list as a "last resort" for women to avoid sexual assault with tips that included "tell your attacker that you have a disease or are menstruating" or "vomiting or urinating may also convince the attacker to leave you alone," CNN reported Wednesday.
The list caused outrage on Twitter as users responded to the tips using the hashtag #UCCSTips.
User @1in3movie tweeted "wow! the things they teach you in college to protect yourself against rape. Classic & Classy! [...] #rape#campus #UCCSTips"
And Twitter user @debosaurus_rex tweeted "#UCCSTips I have a disease. It's called I'M A [expletive] HUMAN so don't rape me."
Students were just as upset about the list.
"Tell your attacker you have a disease or menstruating?" Leah McFann told KRDO. "I don't understand how that will keep someone from attacking you."
However, the school has said the list was taken out of context.
The list was a standalone webpage created as part of an intense self-defense class that simply wasn't properly labeled as such, university spokesman Tim Hutton told Business Insider.
"Certainly the university takes responsibility for having that particular page on its website," Hutton said, adding that the university regrets not clarifying what the tips were for.
When pressed about why the tips seemed ridiculous to some, Hutton said he has spoken with law enforcement who said the tips were appropriate.
"These tips were considered to be last resort" for people who had completed the self-defense course, Hutton said, adding that police have said people would try anything to avoid an attack.
The list, which was created in 2006 and only recently found by a student journalist on campus, has been taken off the school's website and replaced with an apology.
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