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Empowering women through awareness, education, violence prevention and self-defense techniques.

What Professionals,Partners And The Press Have Say About My Body...My Life...

The Norman Police Department

Empowering means the ability to take control and stand tall. My Body...My Life, provides young women with an ability to learn to say no to actions that could have adverse effects on their lives. I applaud this program because it assists young women to develop an understanding that they are precious ..., and they can control their own destiny.

As a father of a teen daughter I appreciate the way the program prepares young women for current and future issues that may arise. This program is an excellent resource that young women can remember when encountering many of life’s challenges. Thanks Bob for sharing your dream with others!

Chief Keith Humphrey

Norman Police Department

March 09, 2012

The Norman Public Schools

The headline in the newspaper today tells of a serial rapist who committed violent crimes against fourteen college age women in Norman, Oklahoma, as well in other states. Due to the dedication of law enforcement, the individual was identified after ten long years of searching. We always know crimes are possible but in our caring closely-knit community?

As mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, we worry about the safety of our young teens. At the same time, it is essential to keep a healthy balance of safety practices and not fearing life. Learning to live safely through prevention education and empowerment has to be an opportunity that is given to teens. Just like the other areas of our lives, education is the avenue to address personal safety and develop assertiveness skills to avoid danger.

My Body...My Life... guides young women to be champions of their own safety. This program focuses on how to perceive and negotiate danger whether it is someone you recognize or a stranger. The National Crime Prevention Council states that “Nearly half of the violent crimes against teens are committed by someone the victim knows at least well enough to recognize.” This drives home the fact that teens need to be assertive and self-reliant in trusting their intuition when “things “do not feel right. The myth that “no” means “yes” is not tolerated.

Since 1994, over a thousand teenage girls in the Norman Public Schools have taken the My Body, My Life course. The program was written by Norman Police Sergeant Robert Moore with Master Police Officer Marcus Savage and Darien Quattlebaum-Moore, a retired school administrator. Through their expertise as law enforcement officers and educators, the self-defense techniques are purposefully taught. The engaging activities are respectfully presented in a manner that helps teens to learn prevention strategies and become confident. Being prepared and learning to think on your own can make the lifesaving difference. We believe that teens must not only be ready for high school graduation and college but also ready.

Sharon Heatly

Director of Guidance and Counseling

Norman Public Schools

February 16, 2012

Norman High School

The Norman Police Department and Norman Public Schools are offering a program called My Body, My Life to help prevent sexual assaults and attacks on women across the state.

This program teaches students how to defend themselves and how to be aware and prevent these encounters. There is also emphasis on the dangers of alcohol and drugs and the struggles and difficulties of dating men.

“Often women are victimized for many different reasons, especially in relationships, because boys don’t really know what they are doing. Technology has also been a big push with My Body My Life, because this generation’s new fondness of technology can influence men to take these actions toward women,” creator of My Body My Life and NPD Officer Bob Moore said.

My Body My Life is being offered to all female students in all of Norman’s middle schools and high schools.

Dan Quinn, former principal of Norman High School first asked Moore to present this program to the NPS District twenty years ago.

Some of the police officers that will teach this course will be Moore, Marcus Savage and Carl Pendleton.

“The three of us feel so strongly about this subject because of our daughters, nieces and sisters,” Savage said.

Moore is a licensed therapist and Savage has a degree in psychology.

A course is also being taught for men in the district about making the right decisions when it comes to dating women and how to deal with issues while in a relationship.

Students who do take the class will be pulled out of class once a week.

Questions about My Body My Life can be made to Brenda Wilkins, career community liaison in Student Services South.

February 7, 2013 • Allison Miller, Page Editor

The Oklahoma Daily

A six foot, six inch, 275-pound man walks into the room. At first, he is incredibly intimidating, but then he lets out a small laugh and a smile, and you can’t help but laugh with him.

“Huge doesn’t even begin to describe him,” said Sgt. Bob Moore, at the Norman Police Department.

Officer Carl Pendleton, a former OU football player, started working for the Norman Police Department after college. Moore asked him to start working on the My Body, My Life program, a rape-prevention class that teaches women and girls safety, self-esteem and self-defense.

When Moore asked Pendleton to get involved, it was an easy answer.

“This is real life stuff,” Pendleton said. “This is lasting stuff, and it matters.”

He became involved five years ago and has been an active supporter and instructor ever since.

At first only offered to high school women, the program has spread to all middle and high schools at over two school districts in Norman. They’ve also held the program for several sororities at OU.

The program has continued to expand and will now be offered to women over the age of 18 at the Norman Regional Hospital Education Center.

The program has been created for women only and includes self-defense techniques that the instructors say not to disclose to men, Moore said.

The secrecy of the program is so important that some information about the types of sexual assault and abuse discussed in the class could not be disclosed due to its graphic nature.

For Pendleton, there is a personal reason to teach the class.

Shelby Guskin, The Oklahoma Daily

Thank you to all of the media who have helped us to reach out to women in our community, our state and our region, so that they too can have the tools to protect their bodies and their lives!!!

Vance Air Force Base

12/12/2012 - VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma. -- The first "My Body My Life" rape prevention and self-defense course was presented by the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator office Nov. 29 in the Community Chapel Activity Center on base.

Ten women attended the course, which is divided into eight chapters: awareness, empowerment, relationships, self-esteem and abuse, alcohol and drugs, date rape, violent rape, and cyber cautions.

My Body My Life was developed by two police officers from Norman, Okla., to teach women ways to prevent, and protect themselves against, violence.

"We saw a presentation on the class at the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault conference, and thought it would be a good class to teach here," said Terri Presa, the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator at Vance.

"I think this program will have a huge impact on young women at Vance, and possibly the Enid community," said Presa. "Anything we can do to protect our women and prevent sexual assaults is our number one priority."

"The overall idea of the class is to show women ways to prevent violence against them through honest education that teaches awareness," said Navy Lt. Jonathan Kindel, a My Body My Life instructor and an instructor pilot with the 33rd Flying Training Squadron here.

"Most rape prevention classes are for women who are 18 years old and up because of the subject matter. But it has been found out that rapes occur as early as 13, and that scared me," said Kindel.

"We need to educate young girls on what to do, how to report, how to get out of a situation and the art of saying 'no,' to someone really persuasive and upfront," said Kindel. "This class teaches them exactly what to do and provides them tools for these situations."

Vance currently has four My Body My Life instructors: Kindel; Tech. Sgt. Micah Lenamond, 71st Security Forces Squadron; Airman 1st Class Nicholas Galbraith, 71st SFS; and Tena Dominguez, the SARC assistant.

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Having grown up in a military family, he’s lived in France, Korea and in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., but Norman is the only place to be for Norman Police Sgt. Robert Moore.

“I’ve loved my time here, and this is the place I’ve chosen to live my whole life,” Moore said. “I love the city, I love the people, I love the university. I’m very happy here.”

And Norman has been very happy with him, or at least its schools and police department have.

Moore, who was named officer of the year in February 2012, developed “My Body ... My Life,” a self-defense and rape prevention class that was born in 1994.

A former Norman high school principal invited Moore, who holds a third-degree blackbelt in tae kwon do, to teach the class, as he knew of Moore’s self-defense background. The principal knew that Moore had previously instructed officers on ways to protect themselves in the streets, and he also knew that Moore, who worked two days a week in the school, had a good relationship with students.

Moore taught the class for about four years prior to the split of the high school, and when one of the school counselors moved to the middle school level, the counselor suggested that the program start even earlier in the education process.

Moore, whose first daughter was in middle school at the time, wasn’t so sure about this at first.

“I kind of had that ‘I don’t want to know about it’ attitude,” he said. “I didn’t want to think that my daughter was being placed into these types of situations.

“Finally,” he said, “I sat down and said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’”

But with a stipulation.

“If I do it this way, I want to do a lot more instruction,” he said.

Moore wanted to take his class beyond self-defense techniques and rape prevention, encompassing also alcohol and drug prevention, self-esteem and more.

Shortly thereafter, he began teaching the material in Norman’s middle schools.

A growing program

To date, Moore said he has taught girls and women from ages 10 to 90, and in just the last few years, several thousand women and young girls have completed the course.

The program, however, is only getting bigger.

“Under the new administration, they’ve allowed me to expand the program,” Moore said. “We are currently in every single public middle and high school in Norman.”

Four years ago, he also made the request through his supervisors to prepare others to teach for the “My Body ... My Life” program. Moore said he began training another officer that year, and he also gained another two officers to help with the program last year. The latter two are still in training, though, by the end of the 2011-2012 school year, they should be certified and “ready to go.”

The project isn’t going to stop with these four officers, however, as Moore recently submitted the program to the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training.

He said the council accepted the program, “acknowledging its benefits,” and allowed Moore to open a school to train officers across the state to become teachers for the program.

He said six to 10 officers from the Norman Police Department will be enrolled, though the rest of the 32-officer class will come from police departments throughout the state.

He said he hopes to be able to offer the classes throughout the Greater Oklahoma City area within the next year.