Comments

It was such a pleasure having you visit and present at our school on Friday. Our students were very impressed but more importantly feel they received great information that can help protect themselves and their children. The extra DVD's are flying out of my office door as I shared information about our presentation at the all staff meeting on Monday. Please pass along our appreciation to Dallas and Catherine as they continue to get their very important message out, everywhere possible.

Teaching girls that they CAN defend themselves

I am interested in becoming a certified trainer for Just Yell Fire. I gained my Master's degree in Library Science last May with an emphasis in children's and youth services, and hope to find a job soon as a public librarian. With the amount of contact I will have in that field with young and teenage girls, as well as contacts with schools and other libraries, I would like to find out how to become involved and help promote your program.

I have been training in aikido as a self-defense art since June, and will be testing for my first rank soon. The more I learned in aikido, the more it made me aware of how girls and women in America are socialized about violence. Movies, television, and popular media seem to promote the belief that girls and women cannot win or escape in a situation where we are under attack by a man. Recognizing this made me interested in finding out what programs were already available to promote girls' and women's self-defense. I discovered Just Yell Fire by Googling "women's self-defense". I was thrilled to find that someone has begun a movement to counter that socialization early in women's lives, beginning with teaching the girls who are most at risk that they CAN defend themselves and escape an attacker, even if their attacker is much larger. I myself am only 5'1", and the techniques that eliminate an attacker's advantage of greater height are also especially applicable to me.

I live in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and I would like any information available on training for certification for Just Yell Fire, either locally or in neighboring states if necessary. Many thanks to you, Dallas, and everyone else involved with Just Yell Fire for your caring and hard work.

You are a remarkable young woman. This morning I saw an interview with you and your mother. The clips of the movie were wonderful. What you have done would be considered a major life accomplishment at any age. To recognize the need and produce an educational film at your age is nothing short of extraordinary. May I join your mom in saying how proud I am of you!

Gayle here from the Sexual Assault Survivors' Centre
Sarnia-Lambton.

Thank you very much for the DVD. You have no idea how
much this is going to be used. Our Public Education person
has 50 different school presentations booked so far, and
she's not done! This DVD will be perfect for our needs.

Thanks again - and all the young people she will reach thank you too.

What a wonderful tool. I have a daughter who is 14 and with special needs. This is done so well I think she will be able to do it and understand it.

I have sent a link to the schools here and asked them to please consider showing it to the girls.

Thank you to all that put this together. Fantastic job!

I just wanted to update you and let you know that we are teaching Just Yell Fire in our HS PE classes, and the girls are loving it! Thanks again for helping us to get started.

I'm a high school graduate going into college. I'm so proud of your work and effort to help girls respond in a way to attacks that will save their lives and keep them safe.

I've shared your website with most of my friends and they love what you've done for girls all over the nation. I would love to receive a DVD of your movie so I can share it with more of my friends and also so I can always remember how to keep myself prepared in case of an attack.

I just want to say thank you again, you've been an inspiration to girls everywhere that we are not victims, we are strong and we have the right to be safe and comfortable in our environment. Thank you so much!

Dallas, My mother and I went to hear you speak in Portales and I just wanted to say that right after the program was over I text a close friend of mine who has been having problems and I told her to go to justyellfire.com. You are my new role model and I am a role model to many of my friends so thank you for giving me snd my friends the correct type of role model to look up to.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I have tried to involve both my children in role playing situations so that they can think about what they are empowered to do in any difficult situation - - to think outside the box and to throw "respect" out the window if they are in danger of another person.

Your video sounds terrific!! I plan to show it to my kids' friends (with parental permission, of course), their parents, girl scout buddies, my friend who is a realtor who I worry about since she is around so many strangers in vacant homes. I'm a teacher and I work with lots of women who need this. One teacher I work with was attacked in a fast food parking lot in the middle of the day. She was knocked to the ground and mugged before she knew what hit her. I can think of so many people who would benefit by this dvd. God bless!

I am a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) and have performed more rape exams than I care to remember. I live in North Carolina and education regarding rape and encouragement to report is not what it should be. I am sure that most females, both teenagers and adults, can tell you the signs and symptoms of a heart attack or what to do if there is a fire, but can't protect themselves or identify risk factors for assault. I am pleased to see a media form of information regarding sexual assault. Our society (especially young people) is very media driven, especially visually, and to see something is more credible that to be told something. I see victims who have been devastated and always "wish I had made a different decision" or "wish I knew what I could have done to stop this". I could bet many people know the Heimleich maneuver if someone is chocking and they surely know what kind of diet to prevent heart disease, but don't know what they can do to protect themselves in a mall parking lot or identify behavior that is suspicious or threatening. It is more believable that you could have a heart attack than it is that you could be sexually assaulted. I applaud your advocacy for safety and sexual assault.