Mum’s Viral Post Stresses the Importance of Self Defence After Her Daughter “Choked-Out” the School Bully

Parents dread the phone call from their child’s school telling them there has been an incident involving their child. We know it could go one of two ways — either your child was on the receiving end of the incident, or they were the ones initiating it.

Margaux Dawn received a call from her daughter’s school letting her know that her child Luna was assaulted by another boy in her class just days after starting school. After seeing the way the event traumatised her daughter, Margaux decided that 5-year-old Luna needed to learn how to defend herself and signed her up for Jiu-Jitsu.

It was a good thing that she did because it was only a few months later that Margaux received another phone call from her daughter’s school. But this time little Luna had fought back and successfully defended herself against the school bully.

The proud mum from Portland, Oregon in the US, shared her daughter’s story on social media where it has gone viral. Her words are encouraging other parents to look into self-defence lessons for their own children.

On the very first day of school, my daughter came home and told me about a little boy in class who had followed her around constantly, making her uncomfortable, despite being asked to stop. He had tried to follow her into the bathroom as well.
I advised her to firmly tell him again (without saying “please”— because this was a command, not a request) and to ask her teacher for help in getting him to stop.
We practised loudly saying “DO NOT TOUCH ME.” and “STOP FOLLOWING ME” in the bathroom mirror together.
I verified with her teacher that she had asked for support, and was assured that an eye would be kept on the situation.

Before the week was over, I received a call from the principal of her school — tensely letting me know that an “incident” had occurred.
That day, the same little boy had cornered Luna, pinned her to the ground with his knees planted on her chest, and forced her mouth open so he could lick inside her mouth while she screamed and cried for him to stop.
A school employee eventually pulled him off of her.
She was terrified.
I was livid.

After only four days of school my confident, bubbly little beansprout was suddenly nervous and unsure of herself.
My daughter timidly told me that she was “worried because she can’t stop bad things from happening to her”.
The school acted swiftly and responsibly to handle the situation, but the spark had gone out from Luna’s eyes — her confidence in her ability to maintain her own safety was torn to shreds.

Her and I spoke at length about the feeling of helplessness, and my heart broke emptily in my chest as we together untangled the misplaced sense of embarrassment and weakness.
And then, after we pinpointed where her confidence had been fractured, we signed up for a self defense class that began just a few days later.

And so, for the past few months, Luna has been suiting up twice a week in her black Gi at Unicorn Jiu Jitsu — the only woman-led black belt jiu jitsu school in the state.

We kept coming back because after the very first class, Luna beamed radiantly at me and firmly said:
“No one is going to touch me like that ever again.”
I cried.
Big, ugly tears.
Baby, you’re damn right they won’t.

… And they didn’t.

Yesterday at recess, an older and larger student didn’t want to wait his turn to climb a play structure. So he yanked Luna down off of it and started to throw her around by the collar. Luna used his own weight to put him on his rear-end in the barkdust but he still did not let go of her. So she put a knee into his chest until he was flat on his back, and then pressed her shin against his neck until he began sputtering and released her. At that point she backed quickly away.

The (slightly garbled) voicemail transcript from Luna’s principal describing that event, and how she was not in trouble because her response was perfectly appropriate, is getting framed and will be sitting proudly on my desk.

The baker at the grocery store declined to write “Baby’s First Choke-Out” on a celebratory cake I bought, but that’s alright.

What a lame baker! That cake would have been awesome!!!

And how wonderful that Luna had regained her confidence in standing up for herself in such a few short months.

Margaux’s post resonated with many people as they liked and shared it more than 150,000 times.

It really is important to empower our children to stand up for themselves, and to teach them the appropriate way to do that.

Looks like we might have some researching and a new activity to sign up for during the school holidays!

Source: Facebook/Margaux Dawn