OSI hosts self-defense class to empower survivors

  • Published
  • By OSI Public Affairs

The Office of Special Investigations Academy Detachment 1 recently teamed up with sexual assault prevention offices at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, in April 2022, to host a self-defense seminar for survivors of sexual assault.

“The training focused on physical-resistance techniques,” said Special Agent Maxwell Thompson, a seminar instructor. “Students were placed in positions of disadvantage to train them how to effectively escape, which is an incredible challenge to surmount.”

The training, conducted in concert with the JBMDL Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) / Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) offices, was also open to those interested in defending themselves, becoming harder targets and developing into skilled intervention-based bystanders.

During the seminar, instructors introduced skills to prevent someone from becoming the target of an attack, actions to take when cornered or isolated, and how to remove oneself from the situation. The training provided a variety of physical self-defense techniques applicable by anyone regardless of physical ability.

“The training honed the survivor mindset in the moment of an assault,” Thompson said. “Ultimately, our hope was to impress upon attendees that a fight under the discussed circumstances is a fight for one’s life.”