COSTA MESA : Preventing Date Rape Is Topic of OCC Lectures

Lectures on how to prevent date rape will be conducted all day today at the student center lounge at Orange Coast College.

A 20-minute play on the effects of date rape will be staged at noon by Stop Gap, a professional theater company.

And a rape victim will speak about her experience at 2 p.m.

A martial artist will show students a few quick and simple moves to get them out of trouble.

Presented as part of the community college’s “Awareness Day,” the eight one-hour lectures are sponsored by the college’s Associated Students.

Lecture topics include: “What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” “Law Enforcement: Know What to Expect,” “When ‘No’ Means ‘No,’ ” “Personal Empowerment Through Self-Defense” and “Walking in a Victim’s Shoes.”

Guest speakers include Don Howell, Huntington Beach police officer and court-certified expert on rape trauma; Tom Green, a sexual assault and child abuse detective with the Westminster Police Department; Neil Kagan, a martial artist; Walter Schwarm, an attorney with the Orange County district attorney’s office who is assigned to the sexual assault/child abuse unit; and Tom Gehrls, a Fullerton police detective who investigates sex crimes at Cal State Fullerton.

For more information, call (714) 432-5585.