Campus Safety is offering one last free Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) session for the winter semester of 2018. The classes will be held from April 23-26 and will begin at 8:30 p.m. This session will be offered exclusively for women and is specifically part of the RAD course for females. The new facilities can accommodate more than 20 people.
“We aren’t going to turn you into Wonder Woman,” said Kevin Penrod, director of Campus Safety. “But we are going to turn you into someone who can defend themselves.”
Personel who head the program have held positions in law enforcement and in the private security sector, so you can expect it to be professional. Because Southern is not gated off from the rest of the world, it is a good idea to have the training that can prevent or diffuse a potentially aggressive situation.
“We operate on an open campus,” Haas said. “Whatever you learn here can be translated into a real life scenario, whether it be on campus or out in the community.”
Penrod tells the story of when he took a similar class before he came to work at Southern. The instructor was a 5’4” female from Texas. He recalls that no matter who she came up against, she would go toe-to-toe with them and more often than not, come out the victor. This is to illustrate the point that defending yourself is not about strength or size, but about technique and the ability to utilize training to its maximum effectiveness.
Teri Reutebuch, Student Development Administrative Assistant and recent completer of the RAD course for women, speaks very highly of the program. She wishes the courses could be available as a potential physical education credit and cannot recommend it enough to the female population on Southern.
“I walked out of the sessions feeling mentally and physically reenergized,” Reutbuch said. “I am confident that if every woman took the course, they would walk out a more bold and confident person.”
Campus Safety offers courses for both women and men, but because the semester is coming to a close, the sessions starting on April 23 will be the last one until the fall. If you are interested in attending this last session, visit southern.edu/campussafety/ to learn more and for registration instructions.