Safe Dating Tips
- Before a date, know the plans for the evening. Tell a friend or someone in your family where you are going and what time you expect to be home.
- Meet a new date at a public place the first few times you go out.
- Tell your date that other people know where you are going and that they will be waiting for your call when you get home.
- Don’t drink or do drugs – especially around people you don’t know well. Your reaction time to protect yourself is slower when you use substances.
- Watch who pours your drink and keep it with you at all times. If you think someone may have slipped something into it, throw the drink out and get another one.
- Before you leave a party, tell someone else that you are leaving and who you are leaving with. Agree to call that person when you get home so he/she knows you are safe.
- Speak up. Don’t be afraid to say “no.” Be direct and don’t back down on important matters with the person you’re dating.
- Trust your intuition. If any person or any situation makes you feel uneasy, keep calm and look for a way to get away as soon as you can.
Dating Bill of Rights
- I have the right to trust myself above all others.
- I have the right to respect.
- I have the right to refuse to date anyone.
- I have the right to disagree with my date.
- I have the right to be safe on a date.
- I have the right to be respected as a person.
- I have the right to use my own transportation on a date.
- I have the right to say “NO.”
- I have the right to get angry.
- I have the right to know who I am dating.
- I have the right to leave any dating situation.
- I have the right to control my level of intimacy with any other person.
*Based on the book: Warning: Dating May Be Hazardous to Your Health, by Charlotte McShane, 1989
Victim Intervention Program/Rape Crisis Center
214-590-2926
Crisis line: 214-590-0430
Email us
The services of licensed counselors and experienced staff are free to Dallas County residents.