Jaraya Johnson
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — The Campus Walk apartments, owned by Walk2Campus Properties, offered self-defense classes last month for residents after a student was assaulted on the property Feb. 15.

Campus Walk held a forum, at the end of February, for students to talk with Rock Hill police about their safety concerns around the property.

Apartment management sent an email to residents March 18 introducing the self-defense classes, which were taught by instructors from EDGE Performance Training, a fitness company in Charlotte.

The classes on March 25, 26 and 28 lasted roughly two hours and drew around 10 attendees, who each were able to work with a partner.

“I really liked learning the techniques and how you don’t have to be stronger than someone to be able to take them down. So it was really fun. It was a good experience,” said Kennedi Harris, a Campus Walk resident.

“I think it was a great thing (Campus Walk) did, because self-defense classes, they can cost a little bit of money and they’re offering this to us for free. So it was a lot of fun. I’m glad I got the opportunity to do it.”

EDGE Performance Training specializes in personal and group training, dieting and healthy eating, but also offers mixed martial arts training.

Daniel Ancheta, owner of EDGE, demonstrated a number of self-defense techniques for the guests, who practiced the moves on each other.

“The most important thing to me is to kind of raise awareness to what the options are (for self-defense),” said Ancheta.

He said taking just one class isn’t enough to get a person ready to the defend themself, but it can definitely help.

“It’s just that process in which we’re raising awareness and saying ‘alright these are options,’ if you practice them, these are options if you’ve learned them,” he said.

Campus Walk management said they are committed to making changes around the complex to improve safety.

“We continue to work with residents, the university, campus and city law enforcement to make our community safer. One big part of this is educating residents on the services already available to them. For example, Winthrop police will escort residents from their car to their apartment at any time,” said Madison Altman, leasing coordinator for Campus Walk.

“Additionally, Walk2Campus has been working to install even more secure security door locks for Campus Walk, additional lighting and Ring doorbells for any Walk2Campus houses that are interested. We are also working on improving some of our policies for next school year, including the guest policy and parking policy.”