By JASON CARSON
United Studios of Self Defense, at 78 W. Center Street in Provo, will be hosting the Rape Prevention and Abuse Defense Seminar on Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Mark Willis, assistant instructor for the studio, will be heading up the seminar, which will focus on simple, effective techniques that can be used for defense in case of a violent attack. In addition, guest speakers from the Provo Police Department and Utah County’s Center for Women and Children in Crisis will address issues related to rape and domestic violence.
Despite what some may think, Utah Valley is not immune to violent crimes.
According to Mindy Woodhouse, the Rape Crisis team coordinator for the crisis center, 154 cases of rape were reported to the center in 1996. Sixty-nine more reports were received through June of this year.
Domestic violence is also prevalent in the area, according Kim Rime, the center’s social worker.
“In 1996, there were 177 substantiated reports of domestic violence in Provo alone,” Rime said. “And there are more student cases than you might think.”
Willis said victims of domestic abuse often think they can’t do anything about it.
“Some have the idea that self defense is for really strong people,” Willis said. “This is for anybody. They’re things that everybody ought to know. We want people to know that they can take their life into their own hands.”
James Kramer, chief instructor for the studio, and Willis will be providing most of the instruction at the seminar. Various women instructors and students will also be helping out, Kramer said.
Johnell Swan, a student at the studio, will be helping out with the instruction. She said the issues of rape and domestic violence hit close to home for her, simply because she is a woman.
According to a study by the crisis center, 95 percent of all spousal assaults are committed by men, and over five million women in the United States are battered annually.
A report from the Family Support and Treatment Center, said 55,000 women are abused by intimate partners each year in Utah.
“It’s always frightening to think that I’m a target,” Swan said. “I don’t want to become a target. I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that either.”
Another student at the studio, Ruth Clegg, knows what it’s like to be in a threatening situation. Clegg said she was assaulted by a fellow BYU student on a date before she learned self defense.
“(Learning self defense) helped me with an attitude,” Clegg said. “I didn’t know the warning signs. If I had known, I probably would never have dated him.”
Confidence is probably the greatest outcome of the training, Clegg said.
Swan said learning self defense has given her a calming assurance that she can do something if she ever finds herself in a dangerous situation.
“It gives me a way out,” she said.
“Most people are looking for an easy victim,” Clegg said. “If you put up a fight, you’re less likely to be assaulted.”
Woodhouse said the problem of rape does not appear to be going away anytime soon. The crisis center receives more calls each year, she said.
“I don’t know if the numbers are rising,” she said. “I think people are more willing to talk about it.”
To register for the seminar, call the Provo United Studios of Self Defense at 373-4844. Registration costs $15 per person for both nights.
Victims of domestic violence or rape are encouraged to call the 24-hour confidential hotline at the Center for Women and Children in Crisis at 377-5500.
