The Collegian

Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Myles Sandrian

Personal Safety instructor Roger Marriott offers a wealth of short phrases and stories that help his students understand the dangerous reality of physical confrontation. Press him a little and it's obvious he has the experience and technical knowledge to back his insightful anecdotes.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to get into a fight, nor does it take one to get out of a fight," he said after demonstrating how to disarm a knife- or pistol-wielding attacker. "You don't have to be nice in a fight, you just have to win."

After serving in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps, Marriott worked for the Michigan State Police, then the Michigan Department of Corrections until retiring in 2002. Since then, he has taught one section of Personal Safety at Hillsdale each semester.

Director of Athletics Mike Kovalchik teaches the other section.

"We've incorporated some dirty fighting, some Marine Corps methodology and some police methodology," Marriott said. "You don't want to look for trouble, but if it's pushed on you, resist."

Combined with his strong interest in young people, Marriott's extensive background provides a gold mine of information for his students.

"First of all, he has great pedagogical skills," junior Garrett Chapel said. "He teaches by example. It helps us to know where he's coming from as a reliable source."

"There's a lot of practicing the moves and things, so we're not just hearing about the moves he shows us," senior Amber Meek said. "If we don't get it right, he makes us do it again."

"I use hands-on [techniques]," Marriott said. "We use a lot of demonstration and a lot of practical application."


Some of that practical application teaches students to maintain an awareness of the situation, even during a tense or frightening moment.

One day Marriott instructed one of his female students to come storming into the classroom at the beginning of class. He told her to scream that he was a horrible teacher and that Personal Safety was a worthless class, then stomp out and slam the door.

After she left, he asked the rest of his shocked students to describe the situation and the female student in detail. Their reports varied significantly, he said.
Another time Marriott concealed six guns and knives on Meek and senior Elysia Berry a few minutes before class started. At the beginning of class he asked the rest of his students to check their surroundings for danger, but none of them noticed anything unusual.

Continued...

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