BY Houston Carr
Staff Reporter
Central’s Rape Aggression Defense course is one way Central tries to educate women on self-defense.
The course is currently being taught by police officers and two members of the Central faculty. Captain Jason Berthon-Koch has been in charge of RAD for 10 years and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
There is currently only one course being taught for women on campus but if enough interest is shown by males on or off campus, there could be another section for males added to the curriculum.
RAD starts off with a lot of education: risk awareness, risk avoidance, how to answer the door safely and other issues that could put unaware students at risk. Sexual assault and partying is a big topic that is discussed in class. The educational portion of the course lays the foundation for the rest of the course and leads right into the physical portion.
“We like to talk about these things because a lot of people don’t know how to do them, or they just don’t think about them,” Koch said. “Simple steps to just make them be safer. It’s really what it is all about.”
The physical portion of the course starts off with the basics of how women can use the strength they have in the most effective manner during an attack. They are taught how to block strikes and get out of a bear hug. After being taught these techniques, there is a simulation night.
“It is the last class of each quarter. Students have termed it fight night, because essentially that is what it is,” Koch said.
Each instructor gets protective gear and goes through three or four choreographed simulations with the students. The simulations are choreographed so they are as realistic as possible.
Fight night is optional for many reasons. Some members of the class may be sexual assault survivors, or just do not feel comfortable acting out the simulations.
Taryn Parsons, senior clinical physiology major, took the class one quarter because she worked the night shift at a hotel and believed learning self-defense would be in her best interest.
“I loved the class. It didn’t take all quarter and wasn’t a big time commitment. Any woman should take this class. If I was going to give any advice to people taking this class for the first time, it would be don’t stress about fight night,” Parsons said. “Everyone was stressed out about it, but once you got into it, it was a lot of fun. It was a total adrenaline high.”
This course is instructed by two women along with the police officers, which makes the class less intimidating for an all female class.
“If I were a female student taking that class, for me it would make a difference to have a woman there at some point, because I would feel like she gets it. She would be thinking of the same safety concerns that I would,” Easlick said. “I think it makes a difference, and is important, to have a female instructor.”
