Congratulations to the latest group of students at Hopkinton High School who participated in a R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense) simulation.
The basic self-defense portion of the class culminates with this simulation, bringing together all of the mental and physical skills they developed and worked on for months. The semester-long program, which is offered to electing junior and senior HHS students, incorporates physical self-defense skills originally developed by R.A.D. Systems, the only self-defense program supported by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, the National Academy of Defense Education and the National Self-Defense Institute.
Diane Maillet, seated in the center of the picture, has been teaching this program for over 10 years to about 40 – 90 students each semester. Over the course of several months, each student learns valuable mental and physical tools necessary to address the reality in which all of us live – that more than one out of three women will be physically assaulted in her lifetime.
At the end of each semester, trained “aggressors”, safety monitors and counselors come together at the high school to create realistic simulations of three different types of physical attacks on each student, allowing them to bring together and implement their months of effort to react to, address and escape from each “attack”.
The high school would like to specifically thank those members of the Burlington police department, the Royalston police department and the Worcester State police department who came to Hopkinton to don scary suits and act as “aggressors” for the Spring simulation day. In addition, the high school would also like to thank the HPTO who is always supportive of this event.
