COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Following the rape, kidnapping and murder of an Ohio State student in early 2017, some service industry workers will be meeting on Thursday afternoon to learn self-defense techniques.

The class will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the High Line Car House on South High Street.

Carly Hensley, who leads community engagement at FUSIAN, is the self-defense instructor for the class, which is open to both men and women and anyone who wants to learn tactics to protect himself or herself.

“Learning self-defense is an important part of living in an urban environment, so it’s really important to know the basics,” Hensley said. “People can take those and practice them and call upon them if they’re ever in a situation where they need to use them.”

Hensley noted that the class may be especially helpful to restaurant or service industry workers. Those employees are “traveling through dark parking lots, with money, at the end of a night. They’re always going to be a target,” Hensley said.

The class was prompted by the death of Reagan Tokes, the student who was raped, kidnapped and murdered earlier this year. Hensley said she hopes the class will prevent a tragedy like Reagan’s death from happening to anyone else.

“We want to remember what happened to Reagan and keep her at the forefront of this event, and her memory, keep it alive and just prevent anything like that from happening again,” Hensley said.