The programs that are offered in high schools and middle schools vary significantly in quality and emphasis. Attention and funding from government and national organizations has been drawn toward keeping violence out of schools. Little is known about what has been done to teach girls how to be safe outside of school at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable to sexual assault.

As an Alfred University report stated, “American public schools are safe places, perhaps even safer than American homes (2001).” This assertion is valid for girls considering as many as 6 out of 10 sexual assaults occur in the home of the victim or the home of a friend, neighbor or relative. It appears that schools are spending time and resources protecting kids while they are at school, which is a noble and worthy cause. Statistically, however, girls are more likely to become a target of violence away from the school. Teaching teenage girls how to avoid violence and sexual assault is as valid and necessary a life skill for them as driver’s education, swimming instruction, or AIDS prevention awareness. Snortland (1998) alludes to sexual assault statistics in the United States while describing the need for VSAP and self-defense training:

“Violence that kills or maims can be as preventable as water injury or drownings. What if you heard of a country where six thousand of its citizens drowned every year, and where 500,000 citizens come very close to drowning? ‘Damn, why don’t those people learn how to swim?’ you would say. “