Brianna Campbell / The Collegian
A recent survey concluded that during a four-year span in college, one out of every four female students gets sexually assaulted. This is the reason California State University, Fresno continues to hold its Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) classes for women around the Central Valley.
This year̢۪s R.A.D. class, held last weekend, experienced its biggest turnout ever. The three-day class was attended by more than 20 students, two of which were only 12 years old.
One of the instructors, Sgt. Jennifer Curwick, said most of the students that registered for the class heard of it through the university police department̢۪s advertisement at the Women̢۪s Resource Center.
“Through the Women’s Resource Center, we have a community thing called the Violence Prevention Project,â€Â Curwick said. “We start talking about community stuff on sexual assault and violence, so we spread the word to them and it spreads through word of mouth.â€Â
The class is dedicated to educating women on prevention of any sexual assaults and how to defend themselves against violent attacks.
Reasons for enrolling in the class vary among the students. For Maribel Martinez, her reason for joining the class was for teaching purposes.
Martinez is an educator for the Resource Center for Survivors (RCS) in Fresno, which deals with educating high school students around the Central Valley about being aware of sexual aggression assault.
“It was a wonderful class. It makes you feel strong enough to fight back when you’re in that situation,â€Â Martinez said. “It’s not going to be easy for someone to attack you any more.â€Â
One of the younger students, 12-year-old Elexis Vasquez, said she wanted to take the class for self-defense.
“I joined the class because I wanted to know what to do in case someone grabbed you – how to protect yourself and how to get out of it,â€Â Vasquez said.
For other students, reasons for joining the class were more personal.
“Some of them will actually say ‘yes, I’m a victim or a survivor of some kind of assault,’ while others are singles who live alone and want to know how to defend themselves,â€Â Curwick said.
Curwick and two other R.A.D. certified instructors, officer Charlene Cornell and campus police detective Tatevos Manucharyan, taught the students how they should defend themselves through physical retaliation.
“It’s not martial arts. It’s more of striking, kicking, knowing how to get out of a chokehold or ground defenses when someone’s on top of you,â€Â Curwick said.
During the last sessions, the students got to participate in realistic scenarios orchestrated by Manucharyan. While doing the simulated scenarios, Manucharyan wore a heavily padded bodysuit so the students could fully practice their defensive moves on different parts of the body.
When asked what the most interesting technique they learned in R.A.D. was, both Martinez and Vasquez replied, “Kicking.â€Â
“My favorite part was the knee strike,â€Â Vasquez said. “We got to kick [Manucharyan] in the groin and shoulder area.â€Â
For more information on R.A.D. classes or rape prevention instructions, contact University Police or Sgt. Jennifer Curwick at [email protected]