Crookston High School held its annual Basic Self-Defense Class for girls who are seniors at CHS on Wednesday night in the CHS Wrestling room.
This program has been sponsored by CHS Leo Club Advisor Linda Morgan and instructed by Crookston School District SRO Don Rasicot, have provided this event for senior girls for over 11 years. “At the time I just wanted to do something for senior girls,” said Morgan, “I thought this would be something special for the senior girls. I think the only year we weren’t able to do this was in 2020.”
This year’s participants saw 13 CHS senior girls looking for advice and tips on how to defend themselves while being attacked physically and verbally. Many of these girls will be heading off to college campuses or larger populated areas where they may be susceptible to violent encounters. “When they leave this school, they’ve been pretty much coddled in Crookston,” said Crookston School District SRO Don Rasicot, “Some of them are going into the cities, and some may be going to colleges, and we’re concerned about the safety.”
The class that took place consisted of basic principles on proactively protecting oneself as a female student attending high school or college. The girls sat in on discussions regarding situational awareness and potential hazards found in any community. “I hit them with some real-world statistics, I do a 45-minute lecture prior to the hands-on portion of the class,” said Rasicot, “I prepare them with my lecture and what I’ve learned through the years as a police officer, and from the victims I’ve seen, and how to survive an attack; we show very basic moves but their very useable, learnable, and they may save a life.”
Rasicot explained that this program has trained hundreds of Crookston Seniors who have given positive feedback and even thanked Don Rasicot and Linda Morgan for their efforts. The girls were introduced to hands-on techniques for self-defense, and most of the techniques that were shown were from Judo. “We teach defense; we want to escape,” said Rasicot, “We want to teach the girls how to escape. There are moves that we teach, and once you perform them, you can go on offense and control your attacker. We don’t want that; we want our students to be able to get away and run, call, and scream for help.”
Rasicot and Morgan encourage future senior girls to consider taking this course because of the valuable and potentially life-saving information that is offered.
