To help Boston University students defend themselves against attack, Rape Aggression Defense classes are offered throughout the school year and cater to all women, regardless of their skill levels and athletic abilities.
‘You don’t need to be Chyna from WWF,’ said BU Police Department Officer and R.A.D instructor Peter Shin, referring to the female wrestler of World Wrestling Entertainment. ‘Using simple techniques and body mechanics, you can move someone twice your size, no problem.’
The program runs over four weeks, and the first class of the second series was held Monday night in Case Center.
Students enrolled said they are excited to learn how to defend themselves in the weekly classes running through Nov. 10, and many said they attended at the urging of worried parents.
‘I come from a really small town, and I’m used to having giant football players around all the time,’ said School of Education freshman Delicia Burkett.
She said she is realizing the dangers of being out alone as she spends more time at BU.
‘I generally feel safe, but I freak other people out because I really have no clue,’ she said.
The course caters specifically to women’s strengths by teaching techniques that utilize their hips and lower bodies. Although each class is open to 30 students, BUPD Sgt. and R.A.D. instructor Jeff Burke said only about half that number usually enrolls.
R.A.D., an international organization, has been offered at BU since 1999 by BUPD and the Wellness Center. Instructors of the $10 course are BUPD officers who go through a 32-hour certification program.
‘The purpose of this course is to empower women through education,’ Burke said.
The instructors started Monday’s session by discussing the four risks of personal safety that are the staple of the program.
‘Risk awareness, risk reduction, risk recognition and risk avoidance are 90 percent of self-defense,’ Burke said. ‘If we can teach you to be aware of bad situations and avoid them, then you won’t have to get into any kind of physical altercations. The best resource you’re going to have when you get out of here is what’s in your head.’
Among other things, the instructors advised students to ‘case’ or constantly monitor their own homes, and avoid looking like a victim.
The instructors also addressed the students on issues such as date rape, which Burke said is the most common form of assault on women.
‘Date rape is not less than other rape,’ he said. ‘The guy who jumps out of the bushes and attacks you is the same as the guy who slips something in your drink at a party.’
After the discussion, students learned the basic self-defense stance, planting their feet shoulder-with apart with one foot forward and their bodies turned like a boxer. They put their right hands in fists placed on their right hips and kept their left hands open near their left ribcages.
‘Everything comes from the stance,’ Burke said. ‘You start in the stance, punch from the stance, kick from the stance and always return back to the stance.’
At the second meeting, participants learn blocks, strikes, knees and hits, and during the third meeting they learn ground defense and how to break holds.
‘At one point, you’re going to be flat out with an aggressor on top of you,’ Shin said. ‘Even though it’ll be a big guy, you’ll see that you can get him off of you.’
The fourth and final meeting lets students gear up with helmets and padding for three sets of simulated attacks. Using the techniques they’ve learned, students try to cross a room of instructors posing as attackers.
‘The simulations give people a chance to go at 100 percent,’ Burke said. ‘Most women have never had the opportunity to do that.’
The instructors stress the importance of operating at 100 percent in the case of a real emergency.
‘This is not passive resistance,’ Shin said. ‘You may only get one chance to escape, and you don’t want to miss it.’
The simulations are completed individually and then taped for group discussion afterward.
‘It gives people a chance to see that they can actually apply the things they’ve learned,’ Burke said. ‘As soon as someone lays a hand on them, the training will kick in. We don’t have people that just come in, panic and freeze.’
The presentation brought up new fears for College of Arts and Sciences freshman Laura Hartz.
‘It’s easy to ignore the bad stuff that goes on in the city,’ Hartz said. ‘I don’t even know where the police department around here is.’
Other program participants said the course would help them feel more safe on campus.
‘I live all the way out in Danielsen [Hall], but I often spend time in Warren [Towers],’ said CAS freshman Maylien Herm. ‘It’ll be nice to be able to walk home alone and feel safe.’
The third section of R.A.D. will run on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. from Oct. 28 through Nov. 18, and women can register at www.bu.edu/police/rad.