A female Boston University student attacked a police officer Tuesday — because she was instructed to.
Nearing the end of Safety Week, the BU Police Department officer gave a lesson on rape-aggression defense and encouraged women to travel in groups when going out.
“Get back, get away from me,” said School of Education sophomore Amanda Groszek as she kicked and punched officer Peter Shin during his demonstration.
Groszek, who has already taken the Rape-Aggression Defense program, wore headgear and pads and demonstrated defensive tactics and techniques with Shin, who wore a heavily padded suit, outside the George Sherman Union on Tuesday.
Throughout the week, activities geared toward alcohol awareness, sex safety and rape prevention taught students the importance of considering their surroundings and decisions.
RAD, a nationwide program designed to educate women on potentially dangerous situations,
shows them how to avoid or escape attackers and helps them achieve a sense of empowerment, RAD instructors said.
“We want them to leave the class feeling confident and not afraid to go out,” said Shin, a certified instructor. “Once they’ve done everything in their power to avoid confrontations, then they should use what we’ve taught them.”
As a general rule, Shin said students should use a buddy system, travel on safer routes and program emergency numbers into their phones.
“Although Boston University has a relatively safe campus, we are in a large city,” he said. “If [students] go out, the rule of thumb is no one leaves alone. If one goes, everyone goes.”
Building on the sexual education of the RAD demonstrations, another event, Safer Sex Fest, also contributed to the sex portion of Safety Week.
Student Health Services Director Dr. David McBride said it is important for students to make smart choices about sexual health because sexually transmitted infections are easily passed in college when students do not use sufficient protection.
“I think that sometimes college students feel like, ‘I won’t get something,’ but the reality is that students get STIs all the time,” McBride said.
SHS hands out free condoms in its waiting room as well as a “condom coupon” for students who want to purchase more. It also offers STI counseling and testing, he said.
“[We want students to know] that there are many different people at BU and in Boston to help them,” said Health and Wellness Educator Beth Grampetro, of the Wellness Center.
To inform college students about drinking risks, the ORL also hosted two days of alcohol awareness.
Students wore beer goggles to test how much activity they could handle when appearing drunk at Marsh Plaza on Monday. When worn, the goggles simulate what the world looks like while operating under a 0.10 blood-alcohol content level. With the beer goggles on, students tried to complete an obstacle course, which included catching and throwing a ball and weaving in and out of cones.
School of Public Health graduate student Liz Romero said the objective of the simulation was to show BU students how drinking can turn simple tasks into obstacles.
Only 12 students participated in the course, a disappointing figure, Romero said. The majority of students who completed the obstacles also said they did not drink regularly.
In the other drinking-safety event, students answered a quiz that gave them details about alcohol, said SHS employee Liz Douglas, who helped with the event held in dining halls. Douglas said she was surprised students could not respond to many questions correctly, and many did not know BU’s alcohol policy.
The questions included “How many ounces of beer are in a red Solo cup?” and “How do you help a friend feeling sick from alcohol?”
McBride advises students of age to pace themselves and have one drink per hour or less to avoid excessive drinking. Alcohol can alter the ability to make decisions, resulting in injuries, problems with classes, anxiety and depression, he said.
Although the sex and alcohol safety activities bring Safety Week to a close today, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said he hopes students will now make personal safety their highest priority.
“Unfortunately, people think about safety as an aftermath,” he said. “We want to get it in their minds first and foremost.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
