Sgt. Scott Ballou hopes to help female students with his Rape Aggression Defense class, he said.

The R.A.D. system is a comprehensive, women-only course that begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and risk avoidance, all while progressing on the basics of hands-on defense training. 

Marshall has been offering R.A.D. since 1998. Ballou said he has taught more than 2,500 students since he started teaching the class in 1999. He also explained that crimes against women are still out there.

“Violence against women isn’t going away,” Ballou said. “Statistics show that a female in college could find herself in an attack situation, and knowing how to defend yourself in an attack situation, you are more likely to escape and survive an attack.”

The class is an elective that counts for one credit hour towards graduation. The class is a first eight weeks course and is offered on Monday and Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m. or 4:30 to 5:45 p.m.

Each class is taught by a certified R.A.D. instructor, according to Ballou.

“There are some awesome instructors that help me, and they have the same mindset as me and that is they want each student to get the most out of this program,” Ballou said. 

Ballou added that the main goal is for women to discover their potential.

“All women have the ability defend themselves,” he said. “They just have to figure it out, and they can learn that through this course. That’s what our goal is.”

Students who have taken or plan on taking this class will have an opportunity to take the advanced self-defense class which is offered for the second eight weeks of the spring semester.

Junior Allison Harman has taken both classes and said she is no longer afraid to walk alone or go certain places.

“It’s a really necessary class,” Harman said. “I think a lot of women think that situations like these wouldn’t occur to them, but wouldn’t you want to be prepared if it did happen rather than find yourself in a situation where you wouldn’t know what to do?”

Ballou added that if a male is interested in self-defense, a class available to take is Taekwondo (PEL 121).

For more information, students can contact Sgt. Ballou at [email protected] or by his office phone at (304) 696-6407.

Robert Castillo can be contacted at [email protected].