LifeFight Segment 018: Youth Attacking Back in School

Hello. I hope all is well for you. I’d like to congratulate you on your endurance to keep in stride with me on the past LifeFight Segments. There’s been some very intense segments and some funny ones. A lot of life lessons have been taught and I’m sure some questions and thoughts have surfaced in your mind. And the best part of all of this is that we haven’t even begun!

In this LifeFight Segment, Youth Attacking Back in School we discuss whether kids should or shouldn’t be allowed to fight back when attacked. But before we get into that conversation we discuss Rebekah’s mysterious 2 week disappearance and how it happened. Rebekah is back in the studio with healthy and ready to blame everything on me. Lol!

Of course we all know that we can cause serious harm to our bodies by over eating and not working out. But did you know that you can also cause serious harm to your body by not eating enough and working out too much!? This is what happened to Rebekah. She put herself on a cut and ate small meals while doubling her workouts. This didn’t fare well and it even lead to the dehydration and malnourishment of her body. In the beginning of this segment we’ll discuss how this occurred and how you can avoid this from happening to you.

With regard to Youth Attacking Back in School, I’m sure you’re more than excited to hear my daughter Kaitlyn’s thoughts on this topic, and of course I have her in studio with me. My having her in studio with me also keeps me in check because I can’t tell you to do something with your kid that I wouldn’t do with mine. We all know that the word among the administration in junior and high school is that if a bully attacks you, don’t fight back! Well, what do you think I tell my daughter Kaitlyn to do if a bully attacks her? You will surely learn in this podcast.

Serious, permanent damage can be done during a bullying attack and this is one of the reasons that I am not a fan of a child allowing another aggressive child to just pound on them until adult help hopefully arrives. Teeth can be lost, bones can be broken and even serious brain trauma can occur to a person who isn’t fighting back when brutally attacked. So the protocol of “not fighting back” in school brings up the concern of serious injury to the child who didn’t initiate the attack and may be innocent. I ask you… Is this the American way to lay back and accept an attack while hoping that someone may aid you? Is this a direct violation of civil rights to tell a child that he will lose his schooling if he defends himself?

Many of us older folks know that when an everyday kid finally puts a smack down on the neighborhood bully, it shuts down that bully. I tell a story on this Youth Attacking Back in School podcast about my fourth grade experience in school with a bully, and how what I did to him not only shut down him as a bully, it shut down his bigger older brothers. This was always an effective way for youth to deal with bullying 20 years ago. But now with the “NO FIGHT BACK” clause in schools, this neighborhood remedy has been eliminated.

You may know that I am no stranger to the hallways of at-risk schools and children. I spend my time in these types of schools teaching calmness and self-control to some of the youth through Mixed Martial Arts. This has fortuned me to see things from the administration and teacher’s perspective also. Believe it or not, the teachers who work in schools that have bullying concerns deal with a high level of stress every second. AND through my experience in the halls with the fights, and the young mobs, I have learned the sensible reason why teachers, principals and school administrators must have a policy that DOES NOT allow youth to “fight back!” or things will get worse for everyone!

It appears that youth today are in a predicament while at school that many times allows them only 2 choices. They can be on the bully’s side as he picks on his victim, or they can be one of the victims getting picked on. Of course I do not plan to leave youth in this horrible position in the place where they are going to learn how to survive in this world, and I come up with some effective remedies that youth can use to shut down a bully... even an aggressive attacking one! And the administration can’t label their defense as “fighting back”.

Please enjoy your listen to Youth Attacking Back in School and assure that any youth that you know also get to listen. You will appreciate the questions and answers that we surface in this educational and fun segment. Thanks always for being a strong listener and remember than now… I’m in YOUR CHILD’S corner!


Jermaine Andre’