UNH's Campus Recreation Center and Durham police have joined forces and started a women's self-defense program in February. However, SHARPP officials are hesitant about the program's approach to help protect the Durham and campus community.
Officer Frank Weeks of the Durham Police Department is the instructor for the new class this year. According to Linda Hayden, assistant director of the Hamel Campus Recreation Center, Weeks has taken victim advocate training in 2000, offered by SHARPP, the Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program at UNH. He also has a first-degree black belt in Hapkeido Karate and in Shorin-Ryu Karate from 1993.
"He is also a lawyer with a degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H.," Hayden said. "This allows him to be more honest with the women in the program and to not be surprised by what any of them might have to say to him about their concerns with other men."
Hayden explained how there have been self-defense programs offered in the past, but "they just were not well planned out, and there was not enough participation as well as publicizing done for them," she said. This time around, Hayden and the Durham police are excited about a cooperative effort for the community.
When asked how the Durham police first got involved in the idea of a women's self-defense program, Deputy Chief Rene Kelley of the Durham Police Department said the police department was first contacted by Linda Hayden about it. He said they decided that this was an area that had a lot of attention that focused on this type of matter. The program itself is also funded by the Durham Police Department.
According to Hayden, the goal of the program is to allow women to feel empowered to protect [themselves] and [to] be able to escape from a situation that she may feel is dangerous.
"The women's self-defense program is not intended to teach women how to really fight or attack someone," she said. "Instead, it teaches them how not to get in trouble in the first place. It centers on how to quickly defend and get away. It is also geared to give a variety of skills that will work for the individual."
However, when Hayden called SHARPP to ask for help in advertising for the program, she was told that women's self-defense did not really apply to their policy.
Director of SHARPP Layla D'Emilia-Shepard explained how they were not opposed to the idea, but rather they did not want to educate women to fight back at all. They wanted to educate both men and women on how not to act out in the first place.
"What women's self-defense does is only teach women on how to protect themselves from strangers but not from acquaintances who are the people we actually know," she said.
"Statistics show that about 75 percent of rapes or attempted rapes occur with someone you know rather than with strangers," D'Emilia-Shepard said.
This is an important factor in why SHARPP turned down Hayden's request to advertise for the program.
"It is a whole different skew of things," she said. "The acquaintance actually knows how to gain trust with someone."
D'Emilia-Shepard pointed out in an article by the "Violence Against Women Journal" of January 2004, which stated that many crisis centers actually pay less attention to self-defense. In an acquaintance situation a woman would not be alert to be in a fight-or-flight mode like a woman trained to know when and how to protect herself against a stranger.
"The statistics are so high with acquaintances, we feel the need to not be involved in women's self-defense," she said. "Initially, we are looking to change behavior and stop the violence. As a movement, SHARPP and NHCADSV, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, want to shift behaviors of sexual violence and stop it from even occurring in the first place."
D'Emilia-Shepard added that women's self-defense is a good idea.
"It does help teach anyone how to protect herself and how to get out of a hold. It does teach you to follow your gut," she said. "So we are not saying no to the program, but we would like for women to have every chance in prevention first."
Hayden emphasized how every action you take is a choice.
She realized that even though the campus is not like a city, it still is a large community where many of the same things that happen in an urban area can still happen on campus.
"This program helps teach women how to use their intuition on what are the right choices to make in preventing oneself from getting in trouble in the first place," Hayden said.
She also added how the course is only for women and that no men are allowed because of the intimidation factor, where in many cases it could be detrimental.
"It may not be such a good idea for a boyfriend to come in with his girlfriend, since it could cause fear for her and even put her at more of a risk if she was coming in to learn how to protect herself from her possessive boyfriend," Hayden said.
Vallapa Paravichai, a junior at UNH, believes that a women's self-defense program is a good idea.
"It does make me feel a little nervous, since there obviously has to be a reason to have the program if the school feels there is a need for it," she said. "There have been times where it probably would have been handy to have some self-defense training, too."
She has a different opinion from SHARPP's belief in stopping the violence before it even occurs.
"It would help to know at least some self-defense moves in the case that I may even be attacked by an acquaintance, rather than a stranger," Paravichai said. "As a girl, I believe that most of us are aware on how we are physically smaller and, therefore, less likely to fight with just anyone, especially with guys bigger than us. So I know that I would never attack unless I truly had to defend myself when needed."
The women's self-defense classes are still available for sign-ups in the Hamel Recreation Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Costs for students and Rec Center members are $10 and $15 for non-Rec Center members. The next class will be held on April 17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is also the possibility for more classes to be held in the future.
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