Children’s Self-Defense Is Not a Fad or a Joke

* I was appalled by your story on the street-fighting self-defense course for children taught by Barbara Gallen. Not only was your article snotty and condescending, it was inaccurate as well.

Barbara Gallen does not teach the children “a couple of kicks,” as your reporter would have learned had he stayed for more than a cursory glance. The techniques she employs are simple, practical and very effective--certainly much more effective than the personal alarms and pagers also mentioned in the article.

Patricia Hines’ suggestion to “change children’s behavior so their safety becomes second nature” is only half of the solution. I would like to hear Ms. Hines tell the parents of Polly Klaas how altering Polly’s behavior might have saved her life. I’m sure that Nicole Parker’s parents taught her very carefully not to go with strangers, but that didn’t save her life either. Nor has it saved the lives of any of the thousands of children abducted by strangers every year.

The course given by Barbara Gallen and her people teaches children how to set boundaries, how to stand up for themselves, how to avoid becoming victims, and when all else fails and they are in the worst possible situation, how to save their lives. This kind of serious, practical training is not a yuppie fad. It’s not an overreaction of panicked parents. And it’s not a joke.

As things stand, those in power do not protect or defend our children. Therefore we must teach them to protect and defend themselves.

If Ms. Hines and your obviously skeptical reporter were to watch Barbara Gallen’s entire 10-hour course and then still believed that a small child can’t defend herself against an adult, then I would invite them to get themselves some padding and come on over to my house. I’ve got a 9-year-old who’d love to meet them.

BRYNNE STEPHENS

Woodland Hills