Berta Felix was a junior at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in the fall of 2016. Around Christmas, she went out for drinks with a male friend. Ms. Felix did not consider it a date. Her friend did, apparently. He insisted on paying for the drinks. He drove her home, and in her front yard, he started kissing her.

“I don’t want this,” she recalled telling him.

“I paid for the drinks,” he said. “I thought you wanted to go out and have fun.” He continued to kiss her.

Ms. Felix slapped him, jabbed her elbow in his stomach, and marched into her house.

She reacted the way she did because she had just completed a new 12-hour sexual assault-reduction course at Florida Atlantic, called Flip the Script. Among other lessons, Flip the Script teaches that acquaintances, not strangers, pose the greatest risk; how to recognize the warning signs of coercion that often precede assault; and how to respond effectively.

Ms. Felix didn’t miss the warning. “If I hadn’t taken the course, I would not have caught the signs,” she said. “We were in the driveway of my house and I had my keys in hand. He could have persisted, come in and carried on.”