Teens learn to fight back

3/7/2008BOSTON - "No! Slap! Elbow! No! I've just been attacked I need help."

This is what students shouted during a self-defense class Monday afternoon at Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester.

The aim of the five-day training is to "keep themselves safe and have confidence to speak up when something doesn't feel right to them," said Meg Stone, director of IMPACT, the organization that provided the training. Monday was the last day and only three students and one teacher attended it.

"I decided to participate in self-defense since I never took the class. So if I was in a situation that I need to use self-defense, I'll know what to do," said Kasandra Babicsta, 12, from Dorchester.

The training focuses on verbal and physical responses. First, the students learn how to talk their ways out of problems and how to use their voices to persuade somebody from attacking them. Then, they learn how to fight back in an attack.

"No matter how big or strong somebody attacking somebody is, there are areas on somebody that are vulnerable. So we teach effective physical skills that help them with those vulnerable areas so that they can stop an attack," Stone said.

Tiera Fletcher, 7th and 8th grade teacher from the school, said she had a positive experience about the training but found it hard not to laugh or feel nervous about it at first.

Instructor Johanna Hattendorf said not all people have the same difficulty with the training. "Teaching physical skill is easier, it's harder to teach people how to find that part of themselves that says 'it's worth defending'... the verbal component is challenging for some people but also is very important for people to get that sense like 'I'm worth defending. It's Ok to say no, especially if somebody is bothering me,'" she said.

Rufus Royal, the co-instructor who plays a role of an attacker, said it's the emotional part that often gets him. "I've done classes where classes break down and cry... A lot of time I feel breaking down, too," he said. "One of the things I hate is to see a woman cry. So when I'm doing a scenario... whether it's a traumatic experience that they went through and see the fear on their face, to see them actually crying, that's something is hard for me to fight back," Royal said. "I may be able to do it but then I have their trauma with me and I have no place to get rid of it," he added.

It may be rough at first but at the end the students said they come out stronger. "I feel a lot better not just about physical confrontation but the verbal confrontation even with someone I know," Fletcher said. "If they do something that I don't appreciate, I feel like I'm more prepared to respond to it and what to say to try to resolve the situation.