Educating Likely Victims 1: Rope
Binding
"Do you
know why Mr Higgins called us to the hall?" I asked my desk mate, and
closest friend, Lauren as our whole class trooped towards the school hall. It
was half way through our lunch break when suddenly the PA system blared to life
and our head teacher requested our whole class of twenty to be in the hall.
Usually, PA announcements were about school awards and if necessary, singling
out a single girl to see teacher x or our head principal, Mr. Waldron. Never
before was a whole class called up. I mean, some of my sixth form classmates
were hooligans (well yeah sometimes) but why the whole class then?
"Not a clue Sian and it better be a good reason for missing my favourite
pasty," Lauren grumbled to me. My best girl friend was always hungry and
chasing after food, but somehow she never grew fat. Finally we all reached the
hall, which was vastly empty. It usually had rows of chairs for girls to sit on
but now those were stacked at the sides. Next to the stage were
Mr Higgins with some police officers plus others in plain clothes. Eight people
in total and all were male, which to me was
slightly frightening for some reason.
"Hi girls, sit down on the ground, I'll explain everything," Higgins
remarked. Floor? My classmates were already doing so
and looking down, I saw that the ground wasn't exactly
cleaned up. Still, since everyone was doing so, I complied. The problem wasn't
really the not so clean floor but about sitting. Our school uniform (yes still
wearing a uniform at sixth form) consisted of a blazer, translucent blouse and
a blue skirt. The skirt was the trouble since even with clothing regulations,
it wasn't exactly the best style for modesty and often we got unwanted looks up
skirts when walking up stairs, standing on higher levels or during windy days.
Girls managed to counteract this during chilly months by wearing tights. Since
it was late spring, tights were not compulsory. Lauren and several other girls
were still wearing their dark coloured tights while my legs were hosiery free.
So whether sitting cross legged or tucking knees up to my torso, I would risk
flashing my black knickers to everyone. I settled for bending my legs and
pressing my skirt far down but that wouldn't be flash underwear-proof.
"We have called you here, girls, for your own good and protection.” Mr
Higgins stood up and walked in front of us as the toher men watched. “As you may have read and heard in the news, there's two groups of criminals in the area. One is engaged
in excessive burglary, not targeting specific houses, but every home in an area
and hauling away goods. They always tie up female occupants for some particular
reason. Another group are kidnappers who target girls of your age, more for
prank reasons rather than for money. The police have been aggressively
addressing this."
"However," he continued, walking around the hall, "in the unlikely
and unfortunate event that any of you girls become victims of the burglars or
kidnappers, the police have formed a new group to teach girls in escaping from
bindings, gags and means of restraints." This caused a huge stir amongst
all of us girls and I wanted to interject.
Raising my hand, I wanted to speak, but Mr. Higgins silenced me with a
look.
"Quiet
please. Let me explain further: your class has been picked as the pilot class
for this programme. Over the course of the next few weeks you'll be shown what
it is like to be bound and/or gagged and how to escape from them."
The class erupted into a chorus of questions and protests over this new
programme. I was the one vehemently protesting since this sounded extremely
ludicrous. However, my objection was counter argued by not just the standing
men but by Lauren and some other classmates. This is the silliest and weirdest
thing to ever happen I thought. "Ok, girls, first basic lesson: rope ties.
Almost 100% of the time, the intruder or kidnapper will restrain your wrists
together to prevent you from fighting back or restrict your chances of moving
away. Although you have seen girls tied with their wrists in front, we believe
the act of it behind is more common in reality. So now, the officers here will
bind your wrists and teach you various ways to undo the ropes."
This is unbelievable, I thought but being one of the few to oppose, the men
freely proceeded towards us, ropes in their hands. My
"captor"/policeman was a six foot tall dark
hair guy with bulging forearms. As he neared me, I instinctively shifted away.
"It's ok little girl. Don't struggle or it'll hurt," he said with a
smile on his face.
I replied
with a litany of protests but all he did was wrench my hands behind my back.
The coarse rope was wrapped around my two wrists in seconds, pulling them so tightly
against each other that I yelped. If this wasn't school and the teacher wasn't
present, I would have released a whole range of expletives. Within the next
minute or so, my hands we secured and bound behind my back. I looked over and
saw Lauren just sitting back with hers bound. Gosh, how could she be relaxed
about it?
Within the next few minutes, all of us girls were bound. In
this manner, with hands not in a balancing position. Many of us had shifted our sitting position
so much that our legs were a little more open. I was regrettably one of those, and definitely flashed my underwear many times
in rapid succession. "Ok, girls, listen up." The next few minutes,
another man, possibly a senior officer, gave a speech on how to start undoing
the ropes that were restricting our hands. One of my classmates, Jemimah, was brought up and a rough demonstration was
given. "Ok, girls, now you try it." I did so but only seemed to tighten
the rope bindings even further, making the bonds even more painful.
Looking
around, I saw Lauren was the first to undo her bonds and raise her hands in
victory. "Great work Lauren," Higgins replied. Try as I did, my bonds
just couldn't seem to budge. The officer who tied me up ran through the
sequence again but despite following his hand signals and verbal instructions,
I just could not get free. "Come one Sian! Come on Sian!" my class
mates, free of the ropes started chanting.
After what seemed like half an hour of sweating and a crowd of faces staring
down on me, I finally got it and the ropes eased free. The whole hall broke
into a round of applause. "Ok, girls, that's all for today. Next week,
same time, same place. Other bindings and not just around
your wrists." I started to get up but Higgins walked over.
"Sian, you stay to practice some more."
“NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I groaned, as my hands were pulled behind
my back again...
Stay tuned for another episode.
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