Missouri National Guard student safety through situational awareness course

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The Missouri National Guard is offering a situational awareness course that focuses on common sense protective measures, including self defense. The objective of Student Safety through Situational Awareness is to provide high school and college-age students with information that will allow them to be proactive when it comes to their own safety and well-being.

The Missouri National Guard developed the program at the request of administrators in the Lee's Summit school district. Parents in the district were concerned for student safety following the abduction, rape and murder of Kelsey Smith, an 18-year-old Overland Park resident, in 2007. The Guard adapted certain elements of military training to help students avoid becoming victims of violence. Guard recruiters provide the program at no cost to schools across Missouri.

The first part of the course includes a power-point presentation focusing on after-school safety issues at home and in the neighborhood. The second part features basic self-defense techniques taught by a National Guard instructor. Some 3,500 students in Missouri have taken the free course.

"One-third of all violent crime victims are 12-19 years old and homicide is the second leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds," said John F. Crane, a representative for the Guard's Education Liaison Program. "Statistics show that girls 16-19 are four times more likely to be the victim of rape or attempted rape and every 21 hours a college female is raped."

Crane emphasizes that situational awareness, being aware of your surroundings at all times, ensures that an individual is prepared and committed to their own personal safety should they ever be threatened.

"This program picks up after school," Crane said. "We teach ways to avoid becoming a victim. We go over parking lot safety; we talk about date rape; we teach safety in numbers; we talk about using the buddy system; we talk about jogging safety; we go over various scenarios, and we teach basic self-defense, like how to break someone's hold on you."

Just four days after taking the course at a Jefferson City high school, Crane said a female student was able to fight off an attacker while jogging using techniques taught during the course.

"Students should be able to recognize the potential for danger everyday and behave in ways that that can help protect their own safety," Crane said. "Assessing, preventing or minimizing their level of risk is important strategies for self protection."

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For more information about this advisory, please contact Scott Moyers at (573) 339-6264, or scott.moyers1@us.army.mil.