Self-defense class kickstarts ‘repowerment’ among teachers, school staff
Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
Warren Weeks goes around the Hopi Day School faculty group to teach them the basics of blocking hits from an attacker at the Hopi Day School in Kykotsmovi, Ariz.
WINDOW ROCK
For one Hopi school, back-to-school season means learning to take a few hits and getting right back up.
Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
Tarah Weeks demonstrates how to control an attacker and goes around the room to help others do the same at the Hopi Day School in Kykotsmovi, Ariz.
Faculty members and teachers at the Hopi Day School in Kykotsmovi, Arizona, on the Hopi Nation, stand alongside one another yelling, “Stop,” as self-defense teachers Warren and Tarah Weeks, husband and wife, teach them to use their voices.
Pernell Begay, Hopi Day School’s academic support interventionist, said it was important to equip the school’s adults with self-defense skills for the safety of the students at the school, their children, and themselves.
Situational awareness
Begay met Tarah and Warren at an education conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they presented on self and situational awareness in schools. Begay said the teachers and staff need to understand that school violence has become apparent nationwide.
“We are here to protect the students,” said Begay. “The parents entrust us with our students, so we need to have some of those tools in our bags, and I think bringing them here and introducing them to what is out there and what threat is out there, we can give them the tools.”
Not only will the faculty and teachers be able to protect themselves and their students in school settings, but they should also be able to protect themselves and their families anywhere, said Begay.
“There is always a threat out there. We want them to be aware. Teach their kids that the threat is out there,” said Begay.
Read the full story in the Aug. 3 edition of the Navajo Times.
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