Our Children’s Right to Self-Defense

Written on March 24, 2011 by George Matheis

Editor’s note: Bullying has been a hot news topic as of late. With all of the focus on the bullying itself, little has been said as to what can and should be done to prepare our children for handling bullies and their bullying. We asked self-defense expert and weapons trainer George Matheis from Modern Combative Systems to give his perspective. His response to this politically-charged subject is what follows.

When we send our children off to school, we have a reasonable expectation that the adults entrusted to teach them will also protect them. Of course, we have all seen the threats by active shooters, but the topic of this article is dealing with bullies.

As a police officer and a parent, it has been my experience that the teachers and administrators know who the bad apples are in their school in much the same way that a police officer knows the criminals on his post. The good kids, like the majority of citizens, start off each day trying to do their best. It is a small percentage of people that prey on them.

Consider the fact that every time you read or hear a story about a violent act, the person committing those acts likely has at least one child. If you are the adult victim of a crime and the criminal is arrested, you will likely be amazed by their criminal record. The same is true if your child is the victim of a bully. The vast majority of the time the incident with your child is just part of an ongoing course of conduct.

Here we are going to focus on physical bullying, ranging from blocking someone’s way, to the threat of, and actual, physical harm. If your child is a victim of bullying, it will likely go something like this: They are in school when the incident takes place. Depending on the incident, a teacher sees it, or is told about it, and the well-known bully is told “not to do it again.â€