HOUSTON—
A unique self-defense class is teaching women how to fight back and avoid becoming a victim. R.A.D. or Rape Aggression Defense Systems is a survival boot camp for women and women only."When the women come in, they're looking for answers. Many are survivors of some type of violence in their life," said RAD Instructor Sgt. Jim Baylor with the Rice University Police Department.
Baylor and his wife, Sandra Baylor, are both RAD Instructors; together they teach participants the skills needed to fight off an attack.
"They're worried about what may happen to them if they've not been through some type of victimization and they want some answers and something that is credible," said Sgt. Baylor.
Each participant learns different defensive tactics from kicks, to jabs, to strikes – weapons they can use during an attack. During the lecture portion of class, they also learn how to be aware and alert to the dangers around them.
"83 percent of the time it is accessibility and availability of the target," Sgt. Baylor explained to the class. "It's not what you wear, your lifestyle. Can I get to you? Can I get close to you?"
Baylor also tells women strangers are not always the ones to look out for; most likely the attacker is someone they're already acquainted with in some capacity.
"All of us RAD instructors become instructors for different reasons," said Sandra Baylor.
She said for years she watched as her father abused her mother.
"In those days, in the 50's and 60's and 70's, they didn't have what they have now. The resources where women can go to these shelters with their children," said Baylor.
So she is the one now providing women with the resources her own mother never had.
"Ladies, you have to take care of yourself first because you are number one, cause maybe you have children to go home to. So you got to take care of yourself first," said Baylor.
