SAN DIEGO — So you’ve probably heard of “Shop with a Cop,” but have you heard about “Jui Jitsu with a Cop?” San Diego Harbor Police hosted their first ever event of this kind at Perkins Elementary Friday, teaching students basic self-defense skills to boost their confidence.
Whether it’s hand-to-hand boxing skills or an effective ground game, these 4th graders are nobody to mess with.
“The best thing is to just learn how to defend yourself, and that’s the key thing, safety first,” said Melissa, an articulate 4th grader at Perkins. “If someone is trying to hurt you, you’re going to have to learn the situation on how to dodge those moves.”
One of the main goals behind the training was to give these kids the tools they need to feel safe and confident.
“Brazilian jui jitsu is about controlling someone in a nonviolent way and basically managing their actions, so that’s basically what we’re trying to foster today along with verbal de-escalation skills,” said Sergeant Timothy De La Pena with San Diego Harbor Police.
“You know any type of knowledge someone has provides confidence in challenging situations, so the more knowledge you have, the better you are able to deal with conflict and other adverse situations.”
After a session with the instructors, young Melissa seemed ready for anything.
“If you actually fight back, it’ll give you enough chance to just get out of the situation as quickly as possible, like knocking someone down if they grab you because they have to get back up, enough time for you to run,” said Melissa.
Based on the great feedback from students and faculty after Friday’s training session, the San Diego Harbor Police hope to host “Jui Jitsu with a Cop” events at Perkins on an annual basis going forward.
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