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  • Cullman Middle School student Jordan Ward learns self defense techniques from Officer Cindy Rohrscheib of the Cullman Police Department. contributed

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August 27, 2009

Local girl fights off attacker

By Patrick McCreless

It helps to be prepared.

Cullman Middle School student Jordan Ward learned that first-hand last month.

Ward was with a church youth group for a day of fun at Six Flags. She determined one ride there was not for her and chose to wait alone on a bench while her friends tried it out.

It took less than a minute for the strange man to approach her.

He quickly started touching her inappropriately — big mistake.

“I immediately took action,” Ward said. “I smacked him across the face and he let go of me. When he unhanded me, I ran until I found my youth minister.”

Ward is not happy that the man was not caught, but is glad she knew how to defend herself.

“If I didn’t have my training, I think I just would have sat there and screamed,” Ward said.

Just a few months prior, Ward and her fellow female physical education classmates participated in the Equalizer self defense class, taught by Officer Cindy Rohrscheib of the Cullman Police Department. Rohrscheib said last year was the first time she had taught the class to Cullman Middle School students.

“My sister and I, we’ve been teaching Equalizer self defense for three years and wanted to find a way to get it to younger kids,” Rohrscheib said.

Rohrscheib said the female-only youth class took up two-and-a-half weeks of the school’s P.E. curriculum.

“It’s the same thing we teach adults, but more in-depth ... we have more time so it’s more detailed,” she said. “We can go into ground fighting and what happens when you get tackled.”

Ward’s mother, Ladonna Ward, said her daughter enjoyed the training from day one.

“She would come home every day to show us her moves ... she even hurt her daddy a couple of times,” she said with a laugh.

To Rohrscheib, the main purpose of the Equalizer class is not to learn fancy moves, but to build confidence.

“You show them how to get the confidence they need,” Rohrscheib said. “You teach how to react to an initial confrontation.”

It was because of the training that Ladonna was not worried when she heard her daughter had been attacked.

“It didn’t really shock me that she took care of herself,” she said. “I hated the fact that it happened. But all I really was, was proud.”

Rohrscheib could not agree more.

“I was very proud of her, she said. “I told her ‘you did everything you were trained to do.’”

Rohrscheib said she would teach her next self defense class at Cullman Middle School in December and would like to teach at other schools in the future.

“I think the more schools, the better,” she said. “But we let the schools decide to invite us.”

For more information on the Equalizer self defense classes, call Officer Cindy Rohrscheib at 736-4703.



‰ Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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