BLOG: This is the Time to Teach Our Girls Self Defense

In light of the apparent kidnapping of Sierra LaMar, it's time for us in the Gilroy and Morgan Hill areas to take action to prevent it from happening again. Although we don't yet know what happened to Sierra, we do know that her attacker is still out there—and he may very well attack again.

So what do we do about it? Our teenage girls are at risk, but how do we protect them?

I think all the high schools in the area should take an entire afternoon and teach every girl self defense. Girls should be well trained to fend off attackers as part of the normal training on how to grow up.

I'm not encouraging self-defense training just because of the particular predator who may be involved in the Sierra LaMar case—and who could still be on the loose looking for his next victim—but am encouraging this training so girls can better protect themselves in all situations. So they know what to do if they're out on a date with a guy who can't control his behavior, for example.

One only has to look at the sexual predator maps online to clearly see that girls need to be able to defend themselves against physical attack.

I would think it wouldn't take much to either find volunteers or hire self-defense trainers for a few days to go to every high school and spend at least an afternoon, if not an entire day, doing hands-on, self-defense training. Perhaps the police department could help. This is something that we can do and should do to make our community safer.

Self defense is a necessary skill that every girl should know. In training our girls to defend themselves we can prevent the next Sierra LaMar from happening.

It also sends the message to potential predators that they might find that they're the ones who get hurt when they come to our area to attack our girls.  

We can prevent crime by nipping it in the bud at the point where it occurs. And even if our girls are fortunate enough to never find themselves in a situation like Sierra likely did, it will still help them feel safer than they do now. They wouldn't have to wonder what would happen if they were the next victim.

I therefore challenge the Morgan Hill and Gilroy school systems to make it happen and I ask the readers of Gilroy Patch to call in and ask the schools to organize a self-defense lesson for every teen girl in the area.

I can't help but think that if we teach girls to defend themselves, that there will be a significant drop in incidences of future crimes against women in our communities.