By Grace Berry

Executive News Editor 

Physical education teacher Aaron Marnstein was teaching a self-defense class when Michael Aldworth came to Prospect. Aldworth suggested to Marnstein a self-defense awareness program called Girls Fight Back.

“At the time, I was only seeing maybe 60 kids [each year],” Marnstein said. “With a school of 2,220 [kids], the message of self-defense was a really good thing to get to a wider audience.”
Marnstein looked into and started Girls Fight Back program in 2010 with former administrator Lee Stanley. The program is dedicated to making women aware of their surroundings and potentially dangerous situations.
Girls Fight Back was created by Erin Weed after her best friend Shannon McNamara was raped and murdered in 2001. This year, the district-wide event took place on Thursday, May 1.
A speaker from Girls Fight Back led the program. She taught about the history of the program, and the importance of listening to your intuition when it comes to self-defense as well as basic self-defense skills. Students learned different scenarios, like in the home or on the street, to use self-defense and the best ways to react to each situation. Marnstein explained students not only learned about the basics of self-defense but also how to carry themselves to look less vulnerable.
Between 250-300 students came to the event this year, but Marnstein hopes more students will participate in coming years. Many senior girls and their moms came out of the fear that when kids go to college they won’t be ready for the environment.
“A lot of people don’t think those kind of programs are necessary,” Marnstein said. “Men think ‘Oh, I don’t need to do this,’ and women think, ‘I don’t need to go to that, and it’s not going to happen to me,’ and so they brush it off and don’t think about. It takes a concerted effort to make a choice to go to something like [Girls Fight Back].”