Neighborhood Women Unite at Self-Defense Class

A local Tae Kwon Do studio is showing women self-defense techniques; to be prepared for any emergency and how to defend themselves. Tae Kwon Do is a form of Martial Arts designed to save yourself, whether it is from a fight or in the case of the participants, because of a sex offender. Women in the neighborhood of Moorhead are not taking any chances after a high risk sex offender moved in to their area.

“We really start with psychological, as far as don’t hold back. When we teach with striking to the eyes, I’ve had women say I couldn’t do that. Psychologically what I tell them is, think about your children,” said instructor Jim Grimestad. Today’s lessons come from the recent level III sex offender that moved to Moorhead. Eric Fanning was convicted in 2006 of raping a woman at We-Fest while he was working as a security guard. “We tried to go through channels to see if there was any way we could get him out of our neighborhood and it turns out there is no legal way to do it,” said one of Fanning’s neighbors Nicole Swanson.

But he moved to town right between MSUM and Concordia, near where Nicole Swanson lives. “We are going to band together and do what we can to protect ourselves and make ourselves confident and safe so we can still be out in our neighborhood and feel safe,” said Swanson.