Listen HereLeah Alsept
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The University of Findlay is combating threats in a way that isn’t seen in Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee movies.
Dr. Chris Moser, Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Findlay, may hold a second-degree black belt in taekwondo, he doesn’t often use his moves when defending himself against a threat. Instead, he taught students and faculty the ways they can defend themselves besides physically removing a threat.
“It’s those proactive measures for minimizing your risk,” Moser said. “How do you walk out of a building? How do you think about where you’re gonna park knowing that you may be going out to that car at night? How do you think about buddying up with someone when you’re walking to your residence hall or your apartment?”
Self-defense can include many things such as weapons, strategies, and techniques to defend yourself. According to Moser, rape whistles, cat attacks, and pepper spray are legal on the University’s campus, but a taser is not. A taser is considered a weapon, according to the University of Findlay’s weapons page on their website. Weapons, such as a knife above 3 1/2 inches are prohibited, also according to the University’s website.
Moser explained what he does to scare off a potential predator. It may be something as simple as your car keys.
“Just about every key has a key fob, and has an emergency signal on it or alarm,” he said, “I walk out from the mall at night and I see someone standing around out in the parking lot, and I’m not quite sure why they’re standing around or what their purpose is,” Moser said. “When I hit this alarm, if they shouldn’t be there, they’re gonna run like the dickens.”
Although Moser couldn’t teach students how to be a black belt in under 10 minutes, he has shown them a few moves to keep a predator off them if it came to that point.
He first showed students where the gag reflex on the neck is, saying if pressed hard enough, it might cause the bad guy to puke everywhere. He then had students get into pairs and practice this technique, of course, not pressing on the gag reflex as hard.
Alexa Fries, freshman Animal Science Industry major, said this was the first time she’s learned these techniques, but does have some of the self-defense items Moser mentioned, such as a rape whistle and pepper spray.
“A lot of times when people have a threat around them, it ends badly when they don’t know what to expect or what to do in those situations,” said Fries.
Moser says that the most important part about learning how to protect oneself if not just physical defense, but what can be done to non-violently.
“To me, the most important part is again sharing information that anyone of us can be doing things differently or better to keep ourselves safe that we never have to use self-defense to protect ourselves, Moser said. “It’s all those decisions that all of us can make that can minimize our risk.”
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