Students Fight Back took a little jaunt up to the beautiful city of Coeur d’Alene this past week and I met the awesome students of North Idaho College! The ASNIC Student Events team greeted me with boundless energy and their enthusiasm about educating their fellow students on self-defense strategies was contagious. There was even a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man at the entrance to the venue to announce the program!
With counselors and the Student Response Officer (a real armed police officer) in the audience, we tackled why victim blaming is wrong and why we don’t go for the groin first in a self-defense scenario! I’ll be honest, I got a little nervous when I noticed Gus (the SRO) jotting things down in his phone and then after the presentation he got up to say a few words to the audience and validated everything we went over! It’s so incredible to hear directly from law enforcement how spot on our program is at tackling issues of violence prevention and empowering students to fight back!
During the Q&A I was asked a great question:
If predators are motivated by power and control, wouldn’t they choose a victim who was standing up for themselves so they can have more power and control?
The badass answer?
Predators typically choose people who they perceive to be VULNERABLE! They most often want easy targets, someone who they can dominate easily. So by standing your ground, setting a strong boundary and having the skillset in your back pocket to fight back if you have to/choose to, you are less likely to become a target of a violent attack! There is a wealth of research backs this up too! So don’t be afraid to be strong, be confident and be POWERFUL.
Mic drop! It was incredibly awesome to see everyone so engaged and ready to take that next step to be their own best protector! I love creating allies as we travel the country spreading empowerment and dropping knowledge bombs!
Thank you so much to all the wonderful people at ASNIC that sponsored this event and were so gracious, friendly and all kinds of awesome including: Heather, Quinne, Mallory, Nicole, and Mitchell! It was a huge pleasure meeting you all and I hope your community learned the most important lesson…that they are WORTH FIGHTING FOR!
Cheers!
GFB Nicole
