Highway Patrol Speaks to the High School Girls
By Jada Wethor on December 11, 2018
Tessa Burnham invited Sergeant John Lord of Mitchell, SD to speak to the Bridgewater-Emery High School girls about self-defense and rape prevention as part of her senior project. This presentation took place from 1:30-3 p.m. Dec. 11 at the new gym in Emery.
“I wanted to bring awareness to the girls at my school about the growing problem involving sexual harassment, especially with my large class heading to college next year,” senior Tessa Burnham said.
John Lord started with the SD Highway Patrol in 1999, and he continues to work with the Mitchell squad to this day. Aside from his normal day-to-day duties as a highway patrolman, he teaches classes on self-defense in Mitchell. At the presentation in Emery, he demonstrated acts of self-defense, but he did not allow the girls to practice those techniques on each other because of the high risk of injury.
To begin the presentation, John spoke about the four different types of personalities women exhibit when responding to conflict: confrontational, assertive, defensive and passive. That led to the types of aggression or harassment: professional, personal and sexual criminal assault. After this introduction, John broke into the different categories of security: body language, verbal responses, home security and vehicle security. When talking about each of these categories, John talked about what we should and should not be doing.
The presentation left the listeners with a few major “do nots” that stuck out: do not trust strangers, do not leave your house and car unlocked and do not wear hanging clothing that can easily be snatched. John also gave advice about what to do if attacked. At first, you should use verbal responses in attempting to disengage the attacker. If that fails, the next goal should be to disengage the attacker physically and then run. If physical aggression works, do not continue assaulting the attacker after disengaged. John made a point to advise using no more assault than the necessary required to get away, run and hide.
After explaining that point, John demonstrated some self-defense tactics on another police officer. These tactics included the following: the inverted finger lock for flirtatious contacts, the wrist release for wrist grabs and the front thrust kick distraction technique.
“I thought the demonstrations were very helpful,” junior Katrina Weber said. “I now have a better understanding of some of the defensive techniques than I had before.”
After the school day and presentation came to a close, John allowed for anyone to come up for questions personally.
“I wanted to bring awareness to the girls at my school about the growing problem involving sexual harassment, especially with my large class heading to college next year,” senior Tessa Burnham said.
John Lord started with the SD Highway Patrol in 1999, and he continues to work with the Mitchell squad to this day. Aside from his normal day-to-day duties as a highway patrolman, he teaches classes on self-defense in Mitchell. At the presentation in Emery, he demonstrated acts of self-defense, but he did not allow the girls to practice those techniques on each other because of the high risk of injury.
To begin the presentation, John spoke about the four different types of personalities women exhibit when responding to conflict: confrontational, assertive, defensive and passive. That led to the types of aggression or harassment: professional, personal and sexual criminal assault. After this introduction, John broke into the different categories of security: body language, verbal responses, home security and vehicle security. When talking about each of these categories, John talked about what we should and should not be doing.
The presentation left the listeners with a few major “do nots” that stuck out: do not trust strangers, do not leave your house and car unlocked and do not wear hanging clothing that can easily be snatched. John also gave advice about what to do if attacked. At first, you should use verbal responses in attempting to disengage the attacker. If that fails, the next goal should be to disengage the attacker physically and then run. If physical aggression works, do not continue assaulting the attacker after disengaged. John made a point to advise using no more assault than the necessary required to get away, run and hide.
After explaining that point, John demonstrated some self-defense tactics on another police officer. These tactics included the following: the inverted finger lock for flirtatious contacts, the wrist release for wrist grabs and the front thrust kick distraction technique.
“I thought the demonstrations were very helpful,” junior Katrina Weber said. “I now have a better understanding of some of the defensive techniques than I had before.”
After the school day and presentation came to a close, John allowed for anyone to come up for questions personally.
