Female University students learned to strike fear into predators in the Rape Aggression Defense System classes offered this weekend by LSU Police Department and LSU Student Health Center.
The 12-hour basic physical defense class, held at the Nelson Memorial Building, taught women strategic methods to avoid danger, physical defense techniques and offered a series of simulated attack scenarios.
The course, which is taught strictly by RAD certified instructors, cost $45 for the general public, but only $25 for LSU and Baton Rouge Community College students. The course offers a lifetime return and practice policy, meaning anyone who attends a class can return to another for free, no matter where the course is held.
The class has strict privacy regulations, including not allowing men inside other than the instructor. Class participants spoke with The Daily Reveille on the condition their last names be omitted.
“I think the more comfortable you are with situations, the more likely you are to react in a more efficient way,” said Vicky K., human resource education graduate student and returning participant. 
Vicky, who took the course as a freshman, said by returning she could hone her skills to handle various situations. She said she enjoys this class especially because of its appeal to women.
“The first time I went I didn’t even know something like that existed,” she said. “It’s good to have a special course designed for self defense for women. It’s not just martial arts or anything more abstract like complicated.”
Lemoine, who has been an instructor for eight years, said he saw this course as an active way of solving a problem on campus. 
“When I saw female safety was a problem here on campus, my thought was that I can’t just identify a problem, I have to do something about it,” Lemoine said. ”This is my way of trying to do