Lauren Spierer's Family Upset After University Removes Info From Homepage
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The family of an Indiana University student and Westchester native Lauren Spierer missing since June 3 is upset that the university has taken information about her disappearance off its main Web page.
A school spokesman tells The Herald Times that officials have decided to rotate a prominent link about Lauren Spierer with other information on the Bloomington campus' home page. It will be featured the first week of every month and remain on the Protect IU page indefinitely.
The Greenburgh woman's father, Robert Spierer, posted on the family's Facebook page that they are disappointed by the decision and still hope to obtain information about her disappearance after a night of partying with friends in Bloomington.
Several weeks of extensive searches turned up no signs of Spierer.
Back in December, Spierer's friends organized a fundraiser to help in the search and self-defense seminar to learn how to prevent what may have happened to Lauren from happening to them.
"We just really know that someone knows something, and we just want to find that out," said Dana Krause, friend of Spierer.
Wearing blue for Lauren, the group learned how to fight back at a self-defense class they organized at New York University.
The fact that Lauren went missing after a night out is a scary thought for these college girls.
"We were anxious to be back at school after everything that happened with Lauren, so we decided to take a self-defense class so we'd know how to arm ourselves against whatever situation is happening," said Lauren Cohen.
Her friends at home say they can't help but feel it could have been any one of them.
"We're really happy with the turnout because if one person is safer, then we achieved our goal," Krause said.
The instructor told the girls to remember three things should they ever need to fight back: get angry, scream and strike.
"Take over the situation, try to get mad and not scared," said instructor Gabrielle Rubin of Female Awareness Self Defense. "Use anything we have that's free to get the attacker off of us."
Police say they've received more than 2,400 tips in Spierer's case.
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