By Colleen Crowley

Sexual assault is a national and global issue, as evidenced by the #MeToo movement’s continual presence in headlines and think-pieces since its inception in 2017.

The problem of sexual assault is especially prevalent on college campuses. Women ages 18 to 24 on college campuses are at three times greater a risk to experience sexual violence than any other age group, according to the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN).

Here at the University of Maryland, the Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct — which defines sexual misconduct as relationship violence, stalking, sexual harassment, assault, exploitation or intimidation — states that there were 208 reports of student sexual misconduct in academic year 2016-2017. That’s an 85.7 percent increase from the 112 reports of student sexual misconduct in 2014-2015 and a 13 percent increase from the 184 reports from 2015-2016.

Although no single person or organization can erase such a widespread societal issue, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club recently held a women’s self-defense seminar to provide female students with basic techniques and maneuvers to defend themselves against potential assailants.

Missy Danforth, a first-degree Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt and co-owner of Alliance Maryland in Gaithersburg, led the seminar.

“I think the biggest mistake that a lot of women’s self-defense programs make is they make women feel like they should stay in the fight,” Danforth said. “The most important thing is to get space and go, not to actually be able to fight someone.”

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is especially effective for women because it is “made for a smaller opponent to use technique to defeat a larger and heavier opponent,” said club member Abisha Dowla, a senior physiology and neurobiology major.

During the seminar, Danforth taught attendees how to neutralize and eventually escape several dangerous situations, like wrist holds, choke holds and frontal attacks.

Sophomore chemistry major Dana Evans, who attended the seminar with no prior Jiu Jitsu experience, said, “It was really cool to learn techniques to fight back against people in ways that I didn’t know you could. It definitely helped with my confidence. I feel a little bit safer walking around campus at night now.”

Ellen Zhang, a junior information systems and marketing major and secretary for the club, called the sport “inspiring.”

“Just the process of learning Jiu Jitsu really helped me gain a lot of confidence along the way,” Zhang said.

Some critics have argued that teaching women’s self-defense puts the onus of responsibility on women, instead of teaching people not to attack others. However, the response from the female students who attended the seminar was largely positive.

“I think having more classes and seminars like this would be really helpful,” Evans said. “I think all women should do a self-defense class, at least one. It really does teach you things you would never think about and it’s really empowering.”

“I definitely feel empowered,” added Dowla. “I would never say that BJJ was regressive, or that learning self-defense is regressive, because it gives you the tools you need to protect yourself. And you shouldn’t have to use them, but if you need to, it’s always good to have them.”