It is 3 a.m. You’ve been out late with your friends and as you come back to TCU, your friends park in the coliseum parking lot. You live on the other side of campus and realize you are left alone to walk back to your dorm. You are in a dimly lit parking lot and all you can hear is the rustling of the neighborhood TCU cats. You feel a bit uneasy about walking home; after all, it is 3 a.m.Do you: A) Walk alone to your dorm room and hope the boogie man won’t spring out from the bushes, or B) call Froggie-Five-O?

Most people would choose option B. We are constantly reminded of how students should utilize TCU’s student escort service, Froggie-Five-O.

But what if the driver is female? Would you continue to use the service, or would you only utilize the service if the driver was male?

These same questions have boggled the minds of TCU students ever since the employment of new female driver, Sara Kinney.

Mixed feelings have detonated over Kinney’s ability to protect students as a Froggie-Five-O student escort driver.

Some students are questioning the effectiveness of those precautions after the hiring of Kinney. Some students doubt her capabilities to be a Froggie-Five-O student escort driver. I wonder what basis these doubts emerge from.

Can she drive a golf cart? Can she dispatch to the TCU Police Department? Can she identify a potentially dangerous situation? My guess would be yes.

For people to question Kinney, (the daughter of a TCU police officer and someone who has been around law enforcement for a significant part of her life), and her capabilities as a student escort on the sole basis of being female is ridiculous.

What about female police officers? Are they to incapable of ensuring public safety?

TCU Police officer Pamela Christian said gender should not be an issue. “I’m a female police officer and nobody says anything about that.”

Being the feminist I am, this would be the perfect time for me to break out in to Irving Berlin’s “Anything you can do, I can do better,” but I won’t do that. The question is not whether Kinney can do it better; it is whether she can effectively do her job. Regardless if the person is male or female, is he or she capable of escorting students on campus?

Let us take a look at what Froggie-Five-O is: The program was established as an escort service for TCU students as a means of taking safety precautions – similar to a buddy system.

Now let us take a look at what the requirements are to be a Froggie-Five-O student escort driver: According to an article in the Skiff, Christian said the major requirements are a valid Texas driver’s license and an interview.

Kinney met those requirements.

Just as any other student escort driver, Kinney was hired because of her capabilities to do the job right. She filled out the same application, went through the same interviewing process and had the same amount of training as her fellow Froggy-Five-O student escorts.

So why the fuss? I could understand if Kinney did not meet these requirements, or if she failed to complete her training. I could even understand if the male drivers knew self-defense tactics that Kinney did not. But this is not the case. It sounds as if people are questioning her competence because she is female.

Froggie-Five-O works as a student escort service; Kinney is doing just that – she is a student hired to escort other student around campus.

TCU students, regardless if they are male or female, work the student escorting shifts at night and are trained to ensure safety precautions in case of an emergency.

Christian said she hired a female student escort driver who graduated two years ago. The student worked for Froggie-Five-O for five years and the issue was far from controversial.

“Nobody even noticed it,” Christian said. “I don’t understand what the fuss is all about this time around.”

Christian said she knows Kinney is fit for the job and will be a great addition to Froggie-Five-O.

“A woman is just as capable of doing a man’s job. Why would anyone want to discriminate like that?” said Christian.

Roxanna Latifi is a senior news editorial journalism major from Fort Worth.