Dd is in her last year at school and today in their personal and social education type slot they had a class that they all enjoyed enormously and which has rather impressed me.
Basically the head of sixth form turns out to be very experienced at martial arts and on the basis of feedback from students re preparing for life beyond school, he has run a class for the last few years just giving them some very basic self defence tips.
Dd said more than half what he talked about was prevention, advising the lads in particular to walk away, not get involved in aggro and yes that did also involve advising specifically the girls to be careful where they walked alone, which from a 'reclaim the night' type pov is a bit grating because the problem with that scenario isn't what the girls are doing. He redeemed himself entirely though when showing them how you might break the hold somebody has on your wrist. He said something to the effect that 'now if that's your partner or your boyfriend and it could well be, then that's a sign you need to get rid pronto'
I have already spoken at length to both my big dds about DV and red flags but I am just so pleased that all the girls in that class heard that message today from somebody they like and respect. A clear and unequivocal message that abuse is not ok and they can see the first signs and act. I think that it's no exaggeration to say that with just those few minutes today he could have saved somebody in that room so much distress and helped them help other people too.
I knew very little about DV until I was at university and involved in womens campaigns. My school would never have equipped me and my peers like that. AIBU to be really pleased they've covered this.
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To be quite impressed re the 'self defence' advice dd was given at school today.
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NorthernLurker · 25/01/2016 19:31
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