Muskingum University Police Department offers new programs for students

    This year Muskingum University Police Department is taking a more positive role on campus by trying to be proactive in its interactions with the community. Muskingum University Police Officer Bethany Hayes is working to improve their reputation by focusing on four programs including: a back-to-school program, Halloween safety program, Active Shooter Training and Rape Aggression Defense classes.   

    The back-to-school program is aimed at providing underprivileged children at the New Concord Elementary School book bags and supplies at the beginning of the school year.

    "We had four organizations donate money for the program: Fleming/Hartly, Muskingum University Police Department, New Concord Police Department and R&D Promotions," said Hayes.

    Hayes also noted this program was started in 2007 and is completed based on the school's need and is greatly appreciated by the New Concord Elementary School.

    "We have got a lot of thank you cards from the school and from kids," said Hayes. "It [was] really nice to see children actually accepted [the donations] and they really liked them."

    The Halloween Safety Program is a new program starting this year for preschool kids, focusing on Halloween and road safety.

    They have set up four preschools to participate so far, including the library, Muskingum University Preschool, Friendship Drive Baptist Preschool, and East Forty Preschool.

    "Those are the ones we going to do the presentation for," said Hayes. "If we have more to sign up, then we will do it as many times as possible. I'm hoping to reach 200-plus kids this year. Next year, I'm hoping to open it through the whole preschool."

    All participants will be provided with a bag for trick-or-treat filled with goodies, and they will sit with police officers and discuss Halloween safety tips.

    "We will do a couple of scenarios with kids on stranger-danger concepts and let them interact with us," said Hayes. "It's like a kind of open session, and they really love this."

    Starting this year, university police will teach a training session in regards to active shooter situations to all first year seminar classes and faculty/staff members.

    "Mostly we are just focusing on the shooter situation, but it could be any kind of intruder situation," said Hayes. "We will teach about anything that we would need to take safety measures for to alert the campus."

    This program consists of a presentation about how to respond to active shooter situations and build defensive strategy. Students will learn about ALICE, which means alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate.

    "The good thing about ALICE is that you adapt to what you need for your own institution," said Hayes. "You break it down and adjust to what you need at your university. That's what we've adjusted this to be, based around Muskingum."

    This program will teach students they don't have to be potential victims, and they can fight back. Students don't have to sit in the corner like we were taught in high school.

    "I showed my students how to take somebody down and we talked about it. I'm actually the one who was lying on the floor, they are holding me down. I teach them how to do it," said Hayes.

    Students feel that being prepared for situations is really necessary and want to start learning these responses and scenarios as early as possible.

    "It should be like the fire drill – everything should be treated like real life," said Muskingum University junior Andy Moone. "We really need that, especially after Virginia Tech."

    The Rape Aggression Defense System is a program of realistic self-defense tactics and techniques for women.

    "We already have 3 instructors on campus and we already have the equipment we need," said Hayes. "We are hoping to bring it in in the spring, because I have to go to the instructor school in December."

    The instructor school is a three-day course taken in increments of four hours. It teaches females how to be aware of their surroundings and how to defend themselves.

    "I think the female defense class is a really good idea, I would like to take that class," said Muskingum University sophomore Paige Natalie. "Girls should know and have the ability to defend themselves. People think females are weaker and it's not necessarily true."

    All of these efforts stem from the Muskingum University Police Department's desire to build a better relationship with the community, rather than having only negative interactions with students through disciplinary situations.

    "If you build a trust with your community they will be more likely to call you when something happens," said Hayes.

    Students are also ready to have a better relationship with university police.

    "I like the idea of them becoming more active in the campus community because we can have more positive interactions with them and we always feel safe with their protection," said Natalie.