The Ohio University Police Department is now offering four Rape Aggression Defense, or RAD, programs during Fall Semester.
RAD training is a self-defense course created just for women. In previous years, only one program was offered per semester.
The training is a 15-hour program that focuses on mental and physical preparation with a strong emphasis on physical defensive techniques, according to the Clery Act. The program is meant to encourage students and faculty to share responsibility for their security and the security of others.
“We have other self-defense classes that anyone could attend, but RAD is specifically for women,” OUPD Lt. Tim Ryan said.
The RAD program is taught by OUPD officers who have been certified to teach the courses. The course takes place once a week for six weeks.
John Stabler, an OUPD officer and certified RAD instructor, said the instructor training takes place over a four-day period. However, they put in approximately 48 hours of work throughout those days.
During training, instructors learn up to 20 different moves, repeating them until they become muscle memory. They also spend about four or five hours talking about statistics and “ways to eliminate opportunities and things of that nature,” Stabler said.
The moves they learn involve their basic gross motor skills because in high stress situations, people lose their fine motor movements.
Officers can put a request in to go to RAD instructor training, but it is ultimately up to the department who can be trained and when.
After the self-defense lecture and demonstration in Baker Ballroom in September, some female students were interested in the RAD training.
During the lecture, Grace Rosteller, a junior studying civil engineering, said she thought living off-campus was scary. She took the OUPD self-defense lecture because she was interested in RAD training, but the class was full.
Each course only has 30 spots because of the instructor-student ratio and the length of the course, Ryan said.
“People are actually coming to us for the class, so it hasn’t been hard to fill,” •Ryan said.
Since more training is being offered this year, Ryan said they are sending more officers to the RAD instructor class.
OUPD advertises the classes on its Twitter page, and people have been reaching out to OUPD about the course.
“They actually fill up really quickly, which is nothing new,” Ryan said. “We’ve been teaching RAD for years, and it is a pretty popular class.”
