Some women in northeast Ohio are putting their safety into their own hands.
The Medina Police Department is hosting a series of self-defense classes at the Medina Recreation Center. It’s a five-week course sharing simple moves to help provide a sense of security in scary situations.
“It’s just me and my two little girls and I want to be able to defend us,” said Jennifer Puckett. “I want to be able to defend myself.”
The newly divorced mom said she’s taking part in the course to provide her daughters a peace of mind she didn’t have as a kid.
“I used to live in a really bad neighborhood growing up,” she said. “There’s been people that tried to break into my parents’ home.”
So, she’s learning how to maneuver out of potentially dangerous encounters with the goal of getting away.
“Everything happens fast and when it happens fast, you don’t have that moment to think,” she said.
The female-focused class is providing women the opportunity to practice moves demonstrated by Sgt. Bryan Wagner and officers with the Medina Police Department.
“It’s important to me to be able to teach women to be confident and to be able to protect themselves, at least the knowledgeable things that we do,” he said.
Sgt. Wagner said they are simple techniques that, with practice and repetition, can become second nature in a stressful situation. A female officer is also available to provide an expert the women can work with to comfortably practice the techniques.
“It’s nothing fancy,” Sgt. Wagner said. “It’s nothing that you’re gonna learn in martial arts. It’s just very effective and easy to learn.”
The class teaches women how to roll with the punches for an added feeling of safety.
“To know that if something happened, that even though I might be panicked in that two seconds, I know how to protect myself,” Puckett said. “I know what to do. Or at least some idea.”
