Comments

Hi there, I saw you on the Montel show today and I have to say KUDOS to all of you who were involved in the making of this video!!!

You have strength and hearts of gold for spreading awareness of this kind. I have 3 daughters, aged 14, 8, and 6, and I can't stress enough as to the worry that I have on a daily basis being their mother, I worry about them walking to and home from school, about playing outside, and even being in a public place with their father and I, all it takes is a split second for someone to grab them.
You are all in my prayers and God is holding a special place for you all.

I saw your segment on the Montel show and was quite impressed. I am eager to share it with as many young girls and women as possible. I am so proud to know that we have such bright and pro active young people. I encourage you to continue to make your project known. I will do everything in my prower to spread the word.

I also plan to screen the video for as many women as possible we all need to know how to protect ourselves, and should know what to do in case of an attack

I am a junior at Gettysburg College in PA. I don't know if you have been watching the news lately, but there has been a murder on our college campus last Thursday. One student (a male senior) strangled and murdered his (ex-)girlfriend of one year (a sophomore). It really shook our campus hard, along with myself, even though i did not know either one that was involved. After breaking down a little tonight, i realized, crying was not going to change the past; nor prevent incidents, assaults, nor murders like this from happening again in the future.

What will? Taking action!

I found your contact information after googling 'self defense for women classes' and wanted to get in contact with you right away. I was hoping you could hold self defense classes for female students, or any woman (faculty, staff or students) on our campus to help protect us if we were to ever get ourselves in this type of situation. It is very scary to know that an innocent 19 year old young woman was strangled, stabbed and murdered by someone that loved her for a year. Not even a stranger, or a crazy drug addict rapist on the street! Her boyfriend! Someone she trusted and loved! How scary is that? She was not able to get away, she was not able to defend herself. She died because of that.

But you... you have the power to give us woman that power. You have the ability to give us woman the ability to defend ourselves. To win. To live. And to help with our recovery of her death on our campus. I believe that immediately holding these self defense classes on our campus will prove that Emily Rachel Silverstein did not die in vain.

Please help me, help us. Give us the power, the ability to defend ourselves and live.

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.

I just watched the 'Montel Williams Show' and saw your segment. I was very impressed with the young girls and their inspirational story. I have a young daughter who we talk to on a regular basis about what to do in an emergency situation, along with weekly classes of karate. Unfortunately for her father and I we may have more reason to be overly protective of our kids...almost eight years ago my husband's sister was kidnapped and later found murdered, the killer still remains unknown. I feel that this DVD could bring us comfort in knowing that if faced with a dangerous situation our children would have a better advantage of getting away safely!

Thanks for your story and God bless you for sharing this with the nation!

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.

I attended the 2009 International Student Leadership Conference, at which Dallas Jessup spoke to everyone and then conducted a workshop to teach us how to defend ourselves, which I also attended. Since her speech, I have become increasingly passionate in the fight against domestic violence. I have helped with projects and fundraisers for the past two years, and this year, I am trying to start a club at my school that focuses on raising awareness and raising money to help fight against domestic violence. I was wondering if there would be any possible way that Dallas Jessup could come and speak to our school briefly about the warning signs of a dangerous situation, and how to defend ourselves if ever caught in one. Also to talk about how she has changed the world with her film and book, and anything else she wishes to speak to the student body about. I am sure that our school would be honored to have her speak to us.

I want to start out by saying thank you for making this video, I think it will help a lot of young girls defend themselves from an attacker. I have several nieces that I want to see this video so that maybe they will know how to act if they ever find themselves in an unthinkable situation. I wished I had known about something like that when I was a teenager/young woman. I was date raped when I was twenty years old and I did not think there was anything that I could do because I went with this guy on my own free will. I tried to fight back but it was not enough. Please send me this video because I want the girls in my family to be prepared.

As a father of three females I applaud you and your work. I am a sex-ed teacher in the metro Atlanta, Georgia area and we cover date rape in our middle school curricula. I hope that you continue to advocate for young females and empower them to live a more fear free life.

God bless you and your service, and please tell all those associated with “Just Yell Fire” well done and blessings as well

A few days ago I watched Montel on TV and on the episode they talked about "just yell fire". I was so impresed by what the girls had done that I downloaded the move from your webbsite. I write this email to tell you how fare the move has gone and that I will tell all my friends about it.

I think it is an incredible thing what these girls have done. If any of them wants they are free to contact me by email, or if they don't want to do that I just want to send them all my luck and blessings.

You are an inspiration