Program offers LAHS students tools for warding off attacks

By Kathleen Acuff, Town Crier Staff Writer

Becky delivers a knee to the groin of KidPower instructor Ryan Holmes. Students in her physical education class learned how to protect themselves when physically threatened.

When Erika Leonard was assaulted in 1992, the athletic young woman fought her attacker off. If she had known then what she knows now, however, the assault never would have occurred. She was at Los Altos High School in March to ensure that other young women learn the same life-preserving skills she has.

As the assistant director of community education for KidPower TeenPower FullPower International, Leonard teaches people of all ages and conditions to protect themselves from - and avoid - violence and other forms of abuse. The four weeks of classes led at LAHS by Leonard and instructors Ryan Holmes and Joseph Maurer taught students the rudiments of setting and protecting personal boundaries, resolving conflict and fending off assault. But the basic lesson was “pay attention.”

“Why wait till our girls are raped or molested and have low self-esteem? You can’t undo those things,” said Linda Sommer, who heads LAHS’ physical education and health department. “We want to be proactive.”

This spring, Sommer brought the training to more than 400 girls in girls-only classes and - for the first time - to a number of boys in a coed class. A former school parent paid for the workshops anonymously. In previous years, the school provided similar training through an organization called Impact Bay Area.

Pattern of attack

“You can always get help,” he reminded students. “The earlier you break the pattern, the safer you are.”

The pivotal event in Leonard’s life occurred as she went about her routine on an ordinary day. Alone on a running track, she trotted slowly around, absorbed in the music from her headphones as, head down, she watched the track before her feet. She was in grungy running clothes, but she was irresistible to someone who wanted to surprise a victim unobserved.

The man who assaulted Leonard targeted her from a quarter of a mile away. Because she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings, he was able to pedal up, hide his bike and get behind her. The car keys she held as she jogged - her standard precaution — flew out of reach when he knocked her to the ground. As he stood over her, she kicked him hard and yelled, “Back off! Go away!” She was lucky. He wanted an easy mark, not a fight and certainly not attention. He fled.

The experience, although it ended better than it might have, had a profound effect on Leonard, her partner, her family and her friends. When she realized how much pain one small act of violence could cause, she thought, “What about the big things?”

Going against type

They also learn to use the “gift of fear.”

“Your body and intuition know and warn you when a situation is unsafe,” Leonard said. “When you feel unsafe, walk away to a safe place.”

The girls in Sommer’s classes practiced “walking away with safety.” In drills with KidPower instructors, they looked for a safe place, defined as where other people are, and walked away from their “attacker,” looking back over their shoulders to make sure they were not being followed.

Because “you have more choice when you have more space,” they also learned about keeping a safe distance. “It’s not conversational distance,” Maurer told them.

Leadership skills

“Yell from your belly a loud, short No!” Maurer instructed them.

The vocal practice prepared the girls for the drill in overcoming “the bystander effect” - the phenomenon of onlookers transfixed as they ask themselves whether they’re really seeing an attack.

“Most people want to help, but you must tell them what to do, and you must be clear. ” Leonard said.

The girls practiced yelling specific demands for help: “You with the glasses! Go call 911!” “I have children here! I need help now!”

Resistance is vital

The position is a way of setting a boundary with one’s body. The girls practiced the ready position with a number of commands: Go, leave, leave now, go away.

“I can have a great ready position, but if I don’t have a plan for my feet, I’m in trouble,” Leonard said. “If the attacker changes direction, pivot.”

The girls learned to be careful with their elbows if they’re attacked while with small children. Because pivoting isn’t possible with a child or two clinging to the legs, the girls practiced sliding both feet along as they kept facing their attacker. A small child must protect his head by putting a hand on his protector’s elbow.

The girls in Sommer’s classes learned that if they’re held from behind, they can stomp the attacker’s foot. Each raised a knee and brought her foot down hard in a T-shape on Holmes’ well-protected foot. Each practiced the proper way to hammer his groin with her elbow: They reached out with their hitting arm, made a fist, moved their hips out of the way and pulled their elbow hard into his stomach. Repeatedly.

Leonard pointed out, “You’ve got tools all over your body: fingers, elbows, knees, feet.”

And attackers have lots of targets: eyes, throat, nose, belly, groin, feet. Protected head to toe in a “full-force padded suit,” Holmes gave the girls target practice. In his giant, thickly padded overalls and the huge, padded helmet that completely covered his head - Holmes ran up to taunt and “attack” the girls. They assumed the ready position, looked him in the eye and told him firmly to go away. When he attacked anyway, they stabbed his eyes with stiffened fingers (the “eye strike”) and kicked him repeatedly in the groin.

Leonard told the girls, “Look at your problem. Open your eyes. Look at your attacker.”

One very useful lesson the girls learned is what to do if they lose their balance: “Just fold one leg under you and sit down,” Leonard said.

“Being on the ground is not a bad thing,” she explained. “If you’re losing your balance, sit down in a time and a way that’s safe for you. It can help you stay safe - you can do eye strikes in that position. If you’re on your back, you can kick the attacker’s groin.”

Emotional pollution

“If someone is being taunted, you can help by going and standing with him,” Leonard said. “Being the first person to do that can be hard, but it makes it easier for others to join you. It can get to the point where the safer, more comfortable place is with the taunted person. The taunter often ends up trying to be included in the new group that has formed around the person he was taunting.”

The girls practiced that scenario, noticing how they felt as the power shifted from one side to the other. They also practiced stopping verbal abuse without escalating it.

Using statements like “I’m really uncomfortable when you talk like that - please stop,” instead of yelling at the speaker to stop, really works, Leonard said. The girls learned that it is important to put an end to the abuse quickly, before they become upset.