Sherry Brennan moves carefully but precisely as she maneuvers Laura Klement’s hand from her wrist and breaks away from Klement’s grasp. Klement gives a wide smile as Brennan moves to take her position, grasping Klement’s wrist in turn. They were among the eight participants in a free self-defense course, sponsored by MayDay Inc., on Saturday, April 6 at Baker High School.

Brennan said a friend invited her to attend.

“I’m just interested in self-defense,” Brennan said.

She said she doesn’t feel

as though she’s in danger during her normal routine,

but she would like to

become more aware of possible threats, and able to protect herself if necessary.

“If I have to go to Salem

or Boise or someplace, you

just never know,” Brennan said. “It’s not a safe world any

more.”

Although she had never attended a self-defense class, Brennan said she studied Taekwondo about a decade ago, earning her yellow belt in the martial arts discipline.

“It’s been ten years so I have not been to something like this and I’ve been wanting to,” she said. “When I found out this was available, I said yeah, I need to go.”

MayDay, the Baker City nonprofit that helps victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, has been scheduling free classes the past few years.

Brennan said she would like to see more self-defense trainings locally.

“We should have 30 women here, not six,” she said. “We need more trainings, it needs to be more advertised, and we need this to be something available monthly or weekly would be great, but even monthly would be really helpful.”

She noted that no one can learn the techniques, to the point that they can use them instinctively, after a single class. That requires repetition, Brennan said.

“I think that’s really important, is developing those skills,” she said.

The classes

Ben Klecker, Eastern Oregon regional training coordinator for the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, coordinated two classes at BHS.

The second one-hour class welcomed younger participants.

Naiya Keys, 8, and Laken Keys, 5, were excited to join and learn techniques from their dad, Dakotah Keys, a trooper with the Oregon State Police’s Fish and Wildlife Division.

Adelynn Vanderpool, 9, and Dax Vanderpool, 8, attended with their father, Josh Vanderpool, and their mother Mandy Masterson, the lead domestic violence advocate with MayDay and an advocate with the Oregon Department of Human Services.

Lela Danforth, who also works for MayDay, said that although she has not talked with women who have had to use self-defense techniques in a real-life situation, she has talked with many who felt more confident that they could deal with threats.

Danforth talked about a woman who had been stalked, noting that she is not a victim but rather a survivor.

“If we had a survivor and they attended the class — of course we wouldn’t ever let anybody know we knew that — but they would report to us, ‘thank you so much because now I feel like I have the awareness of how to keep myself safe from that person,’ because they are so locked in the fear of what happened to them,” Danforth said.

Danforth said classes such as Saturday’s events help women feel more empowered to help themselves and, potentially, others.

“If I have to go to Salem or Boise or someplace, you just never know. It’s not a safe world any more.”

— Sherry Brennan, who attended a self-defense class in Baker City on April 6