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Women learn Rape Aggression Defense

July 31, 2002 1:01 am

"NO!"

Thump!

"NO!"

Thump!

"NO!"

Thump!

Seven women practiced knee strikes, sweep kicks and straight kicks during a Rape Aggression Defense class last week.

Cathy Miller delivered the kicks with gusto, her voice almost hoarse and her arms clenched in front of her face and waist.

"My mother told me it's the last thing I have to do before I go away," said the 17-year-old, who is heading off to college in the fall.

She struck her foot at a black padded pillow that Fredericksburg police Sgt. Sheila Jones grasped between her waist and her knees.

"Yell loud and kick loud," Jones told the next young woman, Kristin Karney, a 14-year-old taking the class with her mother.

"Don't forget you're going for the groin," she added.

The four-week course--for women only--focuses on physical defense, although instructors point out that common sense and an awareness can help avoid potential attacks.

Women learn punches, kicks and ways to get away from an attacker while lying down.

At the final class, each student is subjected to a simulated assault. Then each is videotaped and reviewed by Jones and fellow students.

Jones told her class, which meets in the library of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library's Fredericksburg headquarters, to yell "No!" while fighting off an attacker.

The RAD approach teaches women to yell instead of scream, which can be mistaken for being playful and is associated with fear.

Instead, if women yell short sentences like "Stop!" "Get back!" and "Stay away from me!" it helps identify the crime to others and discourages the attacker, the RAD defense manual states.

"It also gets you to breathe," Brenda Loehfelm said.

The 22-year-old, who works in Dahlgren, signed up for RAD because she had always wanted to learn self-defense and the class was free, she said.

One of the most helpful things she'd learned was that the thumb is the weakest part of the hand.

"If someone grabs you by the wrist, you can pull away from the thumb," she said.

Across the room, Pat Drewniak was gearing up to beat up the padding.

She gave it a whack with her foot, simultaneously yelling "no!" That took a lot out of her, but she smiled as she turned around to give her 13-year-old daughter Julia Drewniak a high-five.

When the kicks and punches were over, Jones demonstrated another tactic.

First, she encouraged the students to carefully assess each potentially hostile situation.

"There are times when you don't want to be too aggressive," Jones said.

An unwelcome arm around the shoulder or waist can be handled in three ways, she said.

"First, ask them to remove their arm. If he doesn't do so, then tell him," she said. "And finally, assist him."

Jones demonstrated the assisted approach on her husband, Keith Jones, who's also an officer with the Fredericksburg Police Department.

She grasped two of Keith's fingers with her hand closest to the unwanted arm. She held on as she uncurled herself from the arm. Then she took her other hand, palm up, and clenched two more fingers on her husband's hand, and pulled them apart.

Keith Jones raised himself involuntarily on tiptoe.

Sheila Jones shoved him away and made her getaway.

More than 2,000 women have attended the nationally taught RAD Basic Physical Defense Program since it was created in 1989, according to the RAD Web site.

It has been taught by the Fredericksburg Police Department since 1994, but was taught at Mary Washington College before that, Sheila Jones said.

The program, based in Poquoson, was created by former Marine and police officer Larry Nadeau, who saw the need for self-defense instruction for women on college campuses, she said.

In the RAD manual, Nadeau notes that the FBI suggests that one out of three women can expect to be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

His approach whittles down the basic physical defense moves for women. Nadeau believes that martial-arts courses and other self-defense programs require too much time of women and are often more ceremonial than practical.

By the late 1990s, RAD Inc. had created a program for children ages 5-7 and 8-10.

In 2001, a new RAD course for men was created. It is not currently offered in the Fredericksburg area.

RAD Kids and RAD for Women courses are offered here several times a year, Sheila Jones said. Participation soars whenever something happens to a child or a woman and is reported in the news, she said.

After Spotsylvania County residents Sofia Silva and Kristin and Kati Lisk were abducted and slain in 1996 and 1997, the regional library branches had lists of people waiting to take the RAD course, she said.

Sheila Jones, who is also the Police Department's self-defense instructor, has been the primary instructor in Fredericksburg for both RAD programs since 1995.

"I like seeing the change in the women I teach," Jones said. "Some are quiet when they come in, and by the time they leave, they hold their heads a little higher."

The Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation Department plans to offer RAD Kids, ages 5-7, on Oct. 1, 8, 15 and 22, 5-6 p.m. and RAD for Adults, on the same dates, 6:30-9:30 p.m. RAD Kids for children ages 8-10 will be offered on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, 12 and 19, 5-6 p.m. Call 372-1086 for more information.

The Central Rappahannock Regional Library also offers the course several times a year. Advanced RAD is offered Thursdays, Aug. 1, 8, 15 and 22, 6:30-9:30 p.m., for women who have completed the basic course. Call 372-1144 to sign up.

RAD is also offered by the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office.