The SIU police are making sure women have the tools and knowledge to avoid being assaulted, and the skills and ferocity necessary to defend themselves.

The last class of the year for the Rape Aggression Defense program met Monday night in the SIU Recreation Center Assembly Room. The class consisted of 10 women and 4 instructors. The curriculum focused on awareness, self-defense and other techniques to stay safe.

Chad Beights, an SIU police officer and instructor for the course, recently certified by the R.A.D. program, said the course is designed specifically for women and requires little to no amount of athletic ability or training.

“It runs like martial arts, but it’s tailored for women in the fact that most martial arts is done with muscles, and we teach women how to use their whole bodies,” Beights said.

Once a woman completes the 12-hour course, she receives a signed certificate of completion, which can be used to take refresher courses anywhere a R.A.D. program is offered.

The program was founded in 1989 by Lawrence Nadeau, an ex-marine and former police officer who developed the program while serving in the Poquoson City Police Department in Virginia. Since then it has spread to more than 1,000 schools, universities, parishes and police departments throughout the United States and Canada. R.A.D. is the only self defense program endorsed by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

Retta Speith, a secretary from Ava, has been attending the fall R.A.D. course and received her certificate Monday. Speith said she had known about the program for a while but finally decided to give the course a try when her daughter signed up.

Speith said the course coincides well with the holiday season, when many women may be out shopping by themselves and carrying larger quantities of money or merchandise.

“I think any time of the year would be fine, but with the holidays coming people are going to be out and about more, I know I will.” Speith said.

The last class began like every other one, with stretching and warm-up exercises, but included real-world situations with instructors donning foam-padded suits and simulating an actual attacker.

John Allen, an SIU police officer and R.A.D. instructor, donned a head-to-toe padded suit nicknamed a “red suit,” and absorbed kicks, elbows, punches and throws from the women in the course. The women were encouraged to use their full knowledge of the skills they had learned in class when training with Allen.

“It’s not just about punching, kicking and fighting,” Allen said. “It’s about using what’s between your ears first.”

The next set of classes is tentatively scheduled for the spring semester.

Daily Egyptian writer David Lopez can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 273 or at [email protected].

Editor’s note: Due to frequent misuse, article comments have been temporarily suspended from siuDE.com. While once a forum for informative debate, article comments have recently served as a place for Internet users to slam each other. We apologize to our readers for letting these comments get out of hand. We still encourage readers to interact on any article or Carbondale issue by submitting a letter to the editor. Letters can be sent to [email protected] or [email protected].