Women’s intuition is real. John Stoner has talked to countless women during his years in law enforcement who said they had a funny feeling about a particular man, but ignored their gut instinct.
“It’s just evident to me that a lot of crimes could be prevented,” Stoner said. “Protecting yourself is a personal responsibility.”
Stoner, an instructor with the Crime Prevention Academy, teaches self defense and situational awareness. In order to conduct a local class, Stoner said he needs about 10 participants.
The focus of his instruction is not how to fight an attacker, although that is covered, but how to be more aware of potential danger and to stop crime before it happens.
“Your best defense is to avoid a dangerous situation,” Stoner said. “I try to wake up that instinct.”
Stoner worked in Woodson County as an undersheriff before moving to Florida for training to become a licensed armed guard. He later decided Florida was not for him and relocated to the Ozarks, but still frequents Iola and other parts of southeast Kansas. He teamed up with Tom Prchal, Yates Center resident, to teach area residents to protect themselves. Prchal teaches concealed carry classes.
Stoner said that even people who obtain a concealed carry license should take additional classes to learn to defend themselves. Carrying a weapon does not necessarily mean someone is prepared physically and mentally for a confrontation, he said. Additionally, Stoner teaches people how to disarm an armed attacker. This also shows how easily you could be disarmed if you bring a weapon into a situation, he said.
Stoner said a third of his students are male, but he gears the classes toward women because they are the biggest victims of assault and sexual assault.
“Predators seek what they see as a weak target,” he said. FBI statistics state that nationwide a woman is beaten every 18 seconds and a rape occurs every six seconds. “It’s prevalent everywhere in the U.S. and it’s way underreported.”
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation reports that there were more than 8,000 violent crimes reported in Kansas in 2012, the latest year for which data was available. These crimes included 888 rapes, 899 robberies, 54 murders and 6,293 assaults. In Iola last year there were four reports of rape, two forcible sodomy, 19 aggravated assaults and 95 simple assaults.
Chief Jared Warner said these numbers were crimes that were reported, but that sometimes crimes such as rape turn out not to be rape over the course of an investigation.
Stoner said he believed there was not enough being done to report rape.
“According to Kansas law, if someone is bit by a dog or shot, the hospital is required to report it,” he said, but they are not required to report rape victims. “Of all the things to report, that’s the most serious to me, a lot more serious than a dog bite.”
For more information on the self defense and awareness classes, contact Prchal or Stoner at 620-496-9055.
