A basic rape aggression defense (RAD) class is being offered to female UW-Oshkosh students for one credit during the second seven weeks of the fall semester.
The class is a self-defense program that teaches a variety of techniques to use in threatening situations.
Liz Cannon, lecturer of women’s studies, director of the LGBTQ Resource Center and Social Justice Director, is one of the instructors.
Cannon said she has taught the class for six or seven years and was chosen as an instructor partially because she has a black belt in Tae kwon do.
Cannon explained that the class shows women how to look for warning signs to keep themselves out of a situation that could result in violence.
“Risk reduction is what we’re trying to do,” she said. “Self-defense is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical.”
The class will have two parts: a classroom section and a physical section.
Information about date rape drugs, alcohol’s role in acquaintance rape, rapist profiles, home and car safety, and how to use common items as defensive weapons will be taught in the classroom section.
Basic kicks and blocks will be taught in the physical section, and the final class will consist of simulated attack scenarios.
Physical defense instructors from the Department of Corrections play the aggressor roles in the scenarios.
Sophomore Katharine Barnett took the class last year and said the simulated scenarios were the most valuable part of the course.
“Even though the police officers who participate in the simulation have no intent to hurt you, the situation still feels real enough that it serves as a useful test of skill,” she said. “It gives the women as close to real-world practice as possible, which helps improve confidence, which would assist in the event of an attack.”
Robin West, a retired UW-Oshkosh police officer, is also an instructor for the class and has taught it for five years.
She said that she is adding a new lesson this fall called “physical assertiveness methods,” which she believes closes the gap between basic assertiveness and physical defense.
“Many of the students begin from a place of never having physically defended themselves and end up being very confident in their ability to do so,” West said. “Some of the students have already been sexually assaulted and find the class very empowering.”
West also said that women are most at risk for sexual assault between the ages of 16 and 24, with the first few weeks of college as a freshman being the riskiest.
“College-age females, in their desire to make new friends and fit in, will engage in risky behavior, and some men take advantage of that,” she said.
However, this is not always the case, and not every woman can prevent her attack, West added.
“Sometimes you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.
West said that many of the women who take the class think that it should be taught in high school, but she would like to see the class taught in middle school.
She is also currently teaching an abduction prevention program called radKIDS to elementary children at an after-school program in Oshkosh.
Sophomore Alyssa DeMario is taking the class this fall and said that she finds any type of hands-on learning to be the best kind of learning.
“This class (teaches) something every girl should know how to do – protect herself,” DeMario said.
The project was supported by Grant No. 2002-WA-BX-0017 awarded by the Violence Against Women Office, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
It is also co-sponsored by the Campus Violence Prevention Project, the University Police, the Women’s Center, the Women’s Advocacy Council and the department of women’s studies.
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