True Stories: Nine-Year-Old Girl Protects Herself

The Washington Post reports that a nine-year-old girl kicked a man in the groin after he began to molest her.

The incident occurred in a Virginia Wal-Mart. The girl ran off immediately to find her mother and the man was arrested within a few minutes.

According to The Post story, the man told the girl he was a police officer -- though he didn't show an ID -- and needed to check her pockets for stolen goods. The story says he molested her while doing this; I assume they mean he touched her groin area, though given that he had no right to touch her at all, putting his hands on any part of her body should be considered an assault.

Obviously this young woman is brave and level-headed. As soon as she realized she was in trouble, she responded quickly and appropriately -- she kicked to get the man to let go of her and then she ran off.

I doubt that her kick disabled the man -- even if she studies karate or other martial arts and knows how to kick well, and even though men's groins are vulnerable, I suspect a nine-year-old's kick might not be strong enough to do much damage. But the kick did something just as valuable: It startled the man enough so that he let go of her, allowing her to run.

That's an important lesson for us all: Even if you're in a situation where you must fight , you don't have to be the best fighter on the block. You just have to do something that gives you an opening to get away -- like this young woman did.

Hooray for her. She took care of herself.

Learn to Fight: Upcoming Self Defense Classes

A short-term self defense class can give you the skills to fight back when all else fails. Knowing you have options even if things get physical will also increase your self-confidence, which makes you much less vulnerable on the street.

At the beginning of each month I'll provide a list of upcoming self defense classes in different locations. This month's list include classes in Washington, D.C., northern and southern California, Boston, Santa Fe, and New York City.

Defend Yourself, an organization in Washington, D.C., offers a variety of self defense classes at reasonable prices -- a nine-week class is listed as $209. Their next class begins on Monday Oct. 22.

Here are some October self defense classes taught by local affiliates of the Impact Personal Safety self defense program. I took the Impact course many years back when it was called Model Mugging and found it excellent. It's more expensive than other programs --
about $450 to $550 for the basic program -- but the teachers have extensive training and the program is intensive.

• Boston Impact has a weekend-long basics class for women on Oct. 12-14.
• Santa Fe Impact has a women's basics class on Sundays beginning Oct. 14.
• San Francisco Bay Area Impact has a weekend-long basics class for women on Oct. 19-21.
• Impact in Santa Monica has two series of weekly basics classes for women, one on Tuesdays beginning Oct. 16 and one on Sundays beginning Oct. 28.
• Washington, D.C., Impact has a women's basics class on Sundays beginning Oct. 21.
• New York City Impact and Prepare has a basics class for women and teens on Mondays beginning Oct. 29.