In ordinary circumstances, the community room at Forest Grove Elementary is a welcoming place for children and families to gather. There’s art on the wall and plenty of space to sit or be active.
But on Tuesday night, it was ground zero for a community fighting back against a predator responsible for several sexual assaults in their neighbourhood.
More than 50 women of all ages turned out to the impromptu self-defence class in the school to better empower themselves in case they too come face-to-face with an attacker.
“This is a community that walks,” said Liz Lo, a Forest Grove resident who came out to the self-defence class because of the recent assaults.
She said she doesn’t want to be afraid to walk in her neighbourhood but instead wants to be smart.
On this night, the women spent a couple hours learning basic self-defence techniques to get away from an attacker: palm strikes to the face, eye gouging and kicks to the shins.
The class was also an opportunity for the community to come together in the wake of the recent sexual assault spree.
Lo, like many of the woman who spoke to NOW, are extremely concerned about what’s going on in their neighbourhood.
“There’s a lot of anger, this has hit the community hard,” she said.
Since the end of January, there have been five reported assaults in North Burnaby. Three incidents, described as groping by police, were along Holdom Avenue late at night.
But two assaults, one in February and one Sunday along the Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail, has put Forest Grove residents on high alert.
In both cases, the women were assaulted along the trail and taken to hospital for treatment.
The most recent attack was not far from the school.
Martha Wismer has lived in Forest Grove for 20 years and walks the trails around her home regularly. She’s never felt afraid and still walks the trails alone, just not at night. Wismer said she always wanted to learn some self-defence techniques, and the recent assaults have pushed her to finally take part.
“As women, we need to take back our power,” she said, adding she can’t understand how someone could commit the crimes on a busy trail in the middle of the day.
That is the hope for Paul Blunden, who organized the class.
The Forest Grove resident is a judo instructor at SFU and had planned to offer the classes for months as a way to give back to the community.
The recent events, prompted him to finally organize the class.
Originally, he expected maybe a dozen women, but that morphed to more than 50.
“Some of the moms, I know are concerned about what’s happening,” Blunden said, noting his own concern in the neighbourhood.
He said the idea for the class is to give people some empowerment and confidence in the face of an attack.
“Hopefully some knowledge that if something were to happen they can do something to help themselves,” he said.
The turnout was so strong for the first class, Bolden will be leading another clinic at Lochdale Elementary on Friday.
For Treena Blomquist, the assaults hit way too close to home. She grew up in Forest Grove, recently moving back, in part because of the natural surroundings.
Prior to the assaults, the only thing she feared walking on the trails were bears.
“I feel like we’re being violated,” she said.
Blomquist, and many of the other woman, are hoping police will catch the suspect soon.
“We want to feel safe again,” she said.
