Katy moms fighting back
KATY (FOX 26) - A recent brazen attack on a Florida child prompts a Katy mother into action. She's a protective mom who now knows, her kids also have to protect themselves.
"When I saw that video of the guy grabbing that 13-year-old, and trying to drag her out of the store, right in front of her mom, I was in shock," says Teresa Rodriguez Nelson.
The attempted kidnapping Nelson is talking about took place June 7th in Hernando, Florida.
Nelson says she always thought if her kids were in sight, they were fine.
"Honestly, and I'm embarrassed to say this," she says, "but I was living in a bubble. I let my kids live in a bubble."
Not anymore. She recruited her friend and security expert, John Savage, to hold a child self defense class. He has 4 children of his own.
"We want to have strategies in place, and some structures in their thinking, to where [self defense] becomes second nature," says Savage, founder and CEO of ExecProtect Worldwide.
Savage says kids are taught to be polite and cooperative. Most don't realize they can't be that way if they're attacked.
He teaches them, if they're grabbed from behind, stomp the predator's foot as hard as they can. If they are grabbed from the front, make fists and pound on the predator's face as hard as they can.
"What's that going to do when they feel that pain?" Savage asks his class. "When they're feeling that pain, that means they're going to release you."
Even if the predator loosens the grip a little bit, that's the child's cue to break away and run. Savage teaches the Pre-K to 12 group the same techniques he teaches the kids 12 and older. "Stomp the bug" and "beat the drum" are easy ways to visualize actions of self defense.
Considering the brazen kidnapping attempt, and the weekend's mass murder in Orlando, Nelson says no one can be complacent.
"We have to take a stand and say, 'no more,'" Nelson says. "We're going to know what to do. We're going to know how to defend ourselves. We're going to know how to defend other people."
Shock and awe, and fight then flight, are self defense concepts Savage will share with other groups. He agrees there's a growing need.
Contact Savage through his security company's website, http://execpw.com/.