THUNDER BAY - Violence and violent behavior are a part of every society and rather than ignore it and become just another victim, Indigenous students at one local high school are being taught the best way to prevent and protect against violence is with confidence and awareness.
Students at St. Patrick’s High School received an important lesson in self-defense courtesy of instructors from Safe International.
“This course is about prevention, awareness, what we refer to it as self-defense,” said instructor, Richard Dimitri. “It’s basic confrontation management skills, and stun and run tactics, so we are teaching people how to survive in potentially social violent and anti-social violent encounters.”
According to Dimitri, kids between the ages of 12 and 15-years-old are at the highest risk of being abducted. However, the training is not simply about defending oneself against a potentially violent attack.
“Besides personal protection and self-defense, there are a lot of life lessons,” Dimitri said. “It heightens an individual’s awareness on many different levels, not just a sense of protection from bad guys.”
This can relate to everyday life and activities, from simply crossing the street, to being aware of a potentially deadly situation or attack.
“It becomes about prevention and not circumvention,” Dimitri said. “Awareness becomes the number one property or key. A greater understanding of violence, how to avoid it at any and all costs, to have a heightened state of awareness and alertness, and to be able to differentiate between a good person having a bad day and a predator.”
Dimitri stressed that there is a big difference between self-defense, martial arts, and fighting, with the latter two being ineffective in real-world altercations against anti-social violence.
“They are completely different animals,” he said. “It’s like comparing badminton, tennis, and ping pong. Self-defense deals with violence, whereas martial arts is mostly sports oriented. Most martial arts are fine motor skilled oriented and require tons of training, clarity in the moment, focus, whereas in a self-defense situation you don’t have any of those options.”
Lyndsay Hupka, an Indigenous resource teacher at St. Patrick’s High School, has also received training from the instructors at Safe International, which will then be used to train other students in future courses.
“The course has been excellent,” Hupka said. “You learn a lot of different things about awareness, self-confidence, how you should conduct yourself when you are out in public. It has helped me to see how I would react in certain situations and now I can bring that to the students and help them with that as well.”
A dozen students participated in the two day course and Hupka said they are very engaged in both the instructional and hands on components of the training.
She also believes it will be a valuable tool for students by providing them with confidence, which may prevent them from becoming a victim.
“A lot of time they find themselves in situations or socially violent situations and they are not really sure about what to do or how to get themselves out of it, so if the students have the knowledge or skills to be able to do that, it would avoid violent altercations occurring,” Hupka said.
For grade 9 student, Jenayah Fox, the lessons have been very eye opening and she has learned how to approach certain situations and how to defend herself properly.
“I always thought self-defense would be punching and kicking, but really, I didn’t know there was a whole wide variety of it and it can be very important,” she said. “He taught us to be aware. People will mostly go after people who are not aware of their surroundings. It’s always important to be aware of where you are and what’s around you and that can keep you safer.”
But most importantly, Jenayah said it has taught her how to be confident, which can be the key to keeping her safe.
“My confidence level is much higher because I know how to keep myself safer instead of encountering a fight and if I do get in a fight, I know the proper way to get out,” she said. “He taught us how to be able to talk yourself out of a situation and the difference between violence and fighting and self-defense in general.”
