Self Defense Challenges America’s Youth

Since most schools have adopted a zero-tolerance policy regarding any kind of fighting, the self defense challenges facing America’s young people have reached critical mass. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, it’s a tough situation for students from kindergarten to college.

According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center an estimated thirty percent of the United States’ young people are either bullies or the victims of bullying. As if that weren’t bad enough, a significant number of America’s youth suicide each year because they can no longer take the pressures of being bullied. Sadly, school faculty and staff are often incapable of dealing effectively with the problem.

Leah Snead, karate instructor at the Stagecoach Community Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico, said, “Unfortunately, even if someone attacks you and you hit back, you can get in trouble.” Snead offers a self-defense workshop for teens designed to help them deal with the challenge. In the class she offers through the Carlsbad Recreation Department she asserts that “… there are ways to handle it that won’t hurt the other person.”

Snead believes that “… they need the tools in case something happens, so they don’t just freeze.” Her classes will teach participants how to get out of wristlocks, bear hugs and throws in addition to rudimentary defenses against weapons.

As in most cases, Snead says, “They need to be alert and aware of what’s going on around them, and this is especially true for girls.

“This gives them the tools so that if they’re ever in a dangerous situation, they have something to fall back on.”