Ithe aftermath of the Lauren Burk tragedy in Auburn last semester, self-defense has become a more conscious issue in the minds of college women everywhere. Most girls came to the realization that a tragedy like that could happen to anyone and most of us wouldn’t know what to do if it happened to us.

Auburn University has a class designed to teach Auburn’s female students how to defend and protect themselves from these everyday dangers. Although the program has been around for many years at Auburn, it has grown immensely in popularity in the last year.

The program is called R.A.D and is offered as a one credit class. Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) is a basic self-defense class for women designed “to develop and enhance the options of self defense, so they may become viable considerations to the woman who is attacked.”

The class is taught by three local police officers trained to teach self-defense. It starts out with four weeks of regular lecture in which they teach how the law applies to self-defense, how to reduce your risk and increase your awareness, tips for safety, and other background information. After all the material has been covered, they then begin to teach students the actual techniques.

The officers will teach a few techniques each class period and the students are given the opportunity to practice them on each other and on the officers. Each week they review previous techniques and then add some more new ones. At the end of the semester the students will engage in a simulation in which they are actually alone in a room and attacked by a officer in head to toe padding.

Many women don’t realize the amount of danger surrounding them at times. Not only are they unaware, but they would be clueless as to what to do if they found themselves being attacked. The class raises that awareness. Not only do they learn to take precautions and situations that could potentially be harmful, but they learn exactly what to do and what’s most important to remember about being attacked. The class also has a lifetime return and practice policy. This means that after you’ve completed the course you can come back to a RAD program anywhere and retake the class to refresh and practice your moves.

Regardless of how smart, safe or strong you think you are, there are many things you can learn from this class. As the women in the class learn… you can never be too cautious!



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