The Concept Of “BBA” Is (Mostly) Bulls — t, Part 4.4

The recent news report of a special needs student violently attacking a teacher’s aide shows that the martial arts world is not equipped to deal with rising problems in school violence.

I thought I had already moved on from typing up part four of The Concept Of “Black Belt Attitude” Is (Mostly) Bulls — t, in which I address the spike in school violence, I felt the need to type “Part 4.4” after I saw the surveillance video of a 17-year-old student, who stands 6'6 or 6'7 and weighs roughly 270 pounds, who violently assaulted the teacher’s aide, even continuing to beat her when she fell unconscious, for confiscating his Nintendo Switch. It took a number of students, other faculty members, and the security guard to pull the student off the aide’s unconscious body.

Even when the student has forcefully pulled away from her, the student kept kicking the aide’s unconscious body.

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Department had announced that the teacher’s aide is in the hospital where she’s being treated. Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly is correct when he said that this could have become a homicide, which is true because of the force the student used when pushing and assaulting the teacher’s aid.

The teacher’s aide suffered broken ribs and immense bruising.

Anywho, this video made me think about my belief on why the concept of having a “black belt attitude” is (mostly) bulls — t. This video is also an example of why I believe that anybody who aspires to become a martial arts teacher needs to spend at least one year working as a substitute teacher for their local public school system.

BBA logic: If the teacher’s aide knew martial arts, then she would’ve seen the attack coming and been able to prevent it!

That is just WISHFUL thinking!

No amount of martial arts training, not even in a fight gym, can prepare you for this situation, especially if you’re under 5'10 and weigh under 140 pounds. We need to be reminded that this was an average-built woman who was assaulted by someone taller, bigger, and heavier than her. The student violently pushed the woman and that sent her flying, which could have killed her.

The cold reality is that weight and size F — KING matter. If they didn’t matter, then combat sports would not have weight classes. This isn’t the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) in which small grapplers dominated.

Ramsey Dewey’s video on weight and size does a great job of explaining why it matters. If the teacher’s aide was a martial artist, she could have very good technique but it wouldn’t save her from the aggression and violence of her attacker.

When the woman hit the floor, she had ZERO time to respond as the student beat her into unconsciousness.

Strength absolutely F — KING matters, too. If you’re physically weaker than your attacker, you’re at a disadvantage. It made me think of another video by Ramsey Dewey who explains that strength is needed for control and that control is needed for technique.

That student had the intent to KILL and he likely would’ve killed her if nobody had intervened. I doubt any training environment will simulate this scenario. If any gym trains anything that’s remotely close, there’s the factor of the body types of the people you practice with.

The student is a few inches shy of being 7' and weighs at least 270 pounds, you’re not going to find many schools or gyms where you have the opportunity to train against someone of that stature. Even if that were to be the case, there are other nuances involved such as the attacker being a special needs student.

I have subbed in a lot of special ed classes and the core difficulty with those students is their behavior which often leads to physical altercations. There were some classes that I subbed where fights ultimately broke out and all of those classes were special ed.

One fight almost broke between two kids over computer privileges.

I also read in the comments that the student is in foster care and lives in a group home, which adds more nuance to his behavior. This is one of the reasons I believe martial artists, especially the ones who hope to become master instructors in their own schools, should learn about the foster care system, its problems, and everything else.

I have taught martial arts to children who are in foster care and the core problem is behavior which is rooted in a number of factors. I believe the student’s behavior also has something to do with the circumstances of his being in the foster care system.

If she was able to prevent herself from getting harmed, can she ensure that the attacking student isn’t harmed in the process, either? The teacher’s aide is an adult and the student is 17 years old, which still makes him a minor.

If the teacher effectively protected herself, there’s still the incoming litigation.

BBA Logic: NO EXCUSES! There are many moves that she can use to subdue the attacking student!

Yes, there are plenty of moves that can be used that neither harm yourself nor your attacker…

But, a very colossal BUT, there are plenty of factors in play. When you’re put in a submission hold, you’re supposed to tap out when the pressure gets too much. There are a lot of people who are way TOO proud to tap out and bad things happen to them.

Say that the attacking student got subdued, and that person is going to fight it. If he doesn’t break free, he’s going to be choked out or suffer a broken limb. Given how this person is a special needs student, he’s would freak out and attempt to power his way out of whatever hold you put him in.

If he breaks free, you’re at a f — king disadvantage because he’ll retaliate while you’re trying to catch your breath again.

Say that she managed to subdue the student but he kept fighting and suffered an injury, she’s going to be on the hook.

I did jury duty last year and I wasn’t even planning to talk about my martial arts experience but I did because we were being selected for a case, one of four major criminal cases in the state that year. If she was able to effectively protect herself, she would have to prove it in court. Fact that the student is special needs and lives in foster care, the jury could be more sympathetic to him.

If the teacher’s aide was cleared of any wrongdoing, she could still get sued by the student’s legal custodian for damages incurred.

Who’s going to pay her legal costs, too?

The teacher’s aide, either way, would come out of this as the loser. It reminds me of the situation of this one general education teacher, Kim Burns-Fisher, who had to share the same classroom with a special-ed teacher.

The students under the charge of the special-ed teachers have special education plans but there was one student with a history of behavior problems that extended to assaulting his other teachers. One day in 2017, Burns-Fisher had to teach the class by herself because the special-ed teacher was not him and the school FAILED to get a substitute for him though it promised her they’d find one.

The student assaulted Burns-Fisher, leaving her with brain damage and a tumor. She was persuaded by the school to not file charges against the student.

The student’s mother, who requested her son (the attacking student) be put in the integrated classroom Burns-Fisher taught in, blamed Burns-Fisher for not “de-escalating” her son. Burns-Fisher had NO special training for these kinds of students and de-escalating was the responsibility of the special-ed teacher who the school failed to find a replacement on that day.

The county school board, who Burns-Fisher sued for damages, tried to place the blame on her by claiming that she had to “assume those risks.”

This incident reminded me of three students I used to have and I’m relieved that they’re gone. They are the kind of students who need to be kept away from everyone else.

One student, who has been in and out of the dojang multiple times, is diagnosed with ADHD and opposition defiant disorder (ODD). It was normal that he misbehaved such as repeatedly attacking other students. His mother believed that martial arts training will do most of the work of keeping his behavior in check.

IMO, she didn’t want to spend the necessary money for therapy and counseling.

The mother even gave us an attitude, claiming that we let her son “run around us” and that he “wasn’t learning any discipline.” On that same day when she came to pick him up, the boy assaulted her, and she was crying.

She called his uncle to deal with the boy, the boy attacked him in response.

She called his grandfather to deal with the boy, the boy attacked him in response.

When I had to teach at the second location, before my teacher had to close it down, I had to deal with one student who was a treasure trove of mental illness. The boy is adopted and was born with fetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD). If that wasn’t bad enough, he had a bunch of other mental disorders.

His parents kept him in public school because no matter what he did, the school couldn’t expel him.

The mother believed that traditional martial arts training was going to teach the boy humility but that was a f — king pipe dream. There’s no way to overcome FASD because it is a chemical imbalance that’s associated with delayed or stunted brain development.

When he didn’t come back, his younger brother was still with us. One of the other students (a known chatterbox) at the second location went to middle school with the boy who would run his mouth to the younger brother before class. One of the things that caught my attention was that the boy, through second-hand info from the chatterbox, was that the boy openly talked about wanting to have a party, where he raped his classmates.

During summer camp last year, we had one kid, diagnosed with autism, who was in the foster care system, with a history of misbehavior. The boy had an assault charge against him for throwing an object at his teacher with the intent to harm.

The boy told me that he was “happy that he did it.”

When the boy didn’t get his way, he often acted violently. He would go around knocking things down without a care in the world.

Dealing with those three kids is like the teacher’s aide having to deal with that towering student who assaulted her.

BBA Logic: Why was the security guard not doing anything? He just stood there and let it happen!

In the video, there’s someone who looked like he was dressed like a security guard. There is the belief that someone should jump into the situation and neutralize the attacker but that’s actually the dumbest thing to do.

This is a tall and heavy person with the violent intent to kill.

Just because I’m a martial artist, I’m NOT going to immediately rush to the rescue if I saw that happening in front of me.

The first reason is that I’m neither in law enforcement nor am I in private security.

The second reason is that I could risk getting myself critically injured in the process. I could possibly lose my life in the process.

The general reason that most will not jump to the rescue is because of fear, understandable fear.

Jocko Willink, though I don’t care much for him because of his right-wing views, said there is no shame in not getting involved.

I found that major because Jocko is a BJJ expert and a former United States Navy SEAL. If anybody immediately came to the rescue of the teacher’s aide, so many things could go wrong. The situation could get more violent, too, and that’s NOT good for anybody.

That increases the risk of other people getting hurt in the process and that increases the liability. The school and participants (regardless of their good intentions) can expect a f — kton of third-party lawsuits heading their way.

BBA Logic: This is why martial arts training is needed, it makes people fearless!

Let’s address post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because many soldiers who experience live combat, especially if they’re almost killed in battle, will experience it. Paul K. Chappell (who I met in 2012), a former Army officer who became a peace activist, wrote an informative piece titled “The Hunger Games vs. The Reality Of War,” and referenced West Point professor & author LTC. David Grossman.

Grossman has written many books with one of his well-known titles being On Killing: The Psychological Loss Of War. In one of his books, Grossman states that psychological collapse happens in intense and extensive combat.

In the case of dealing with that student, it would be classified as an intense combat situation.

Chapell’s article talks about the Spartans, who macho dudes fantasize themselves about being, and how much training & discipline they had to go through. In the times when the Spartans existed, they started their training when they were seven, began their military service when they were twenty, and retired from service when they were sixty.

The average Spartan would see more than his fair share of combat.

Anybody who had little to no discipline would either be booted out or killed early on. They have MORE training than the average martial arts master. Despite their reputation of being bad@$$es, mainly because of how celebrated the “Battle of Thermopylae” is, the Spartans feared for their lives when they fought against Thebes.

Chappell said that when you actively try to kill your opponents, they will freak out.

Going back to that special needs student, he was willing to kill the teacher’s aide, who was physically smaller & weaker, because he wanted his Nintendo Switch back. This kid was willing to kill over it and it doesn’t matter how much combat training one goes through, the fear will be there.

Chappell also mentioned the “Battle of Leuctra” in which the Spartans retreated out of fear and panic, despite outnumbering the Thebans. The Spartans freaked out when their commanding general was killed by an incoming javelin.

In the case of what happened at the high school, the teacher’s aide was already beaten unconscious.

It doesn’t matter how many people were in the same room as the student and the teacher’s aide, none of them aren’t going to risk injuries and possible death. The situation reminds me of the Zac Efron film on Apple TV+ titled The Greatest Beer Run Ever.

This is also the same reason I am against the sudden rise of self-defense seminars, especially in response to the spike in anti-AAPI violence. No self-defense seminar is going to prepare a person to deal with a sudden violent attack like the one perpetrated by that high school student.

It cannot be stressed enough that the student is 6'7 and 270 pounds.

BBA logic: The kid is gone, he was arrested. The teacher’s aide and everyone else should begin training to prevent another incident from happening!

This is the typical strawman argument that pro-martial arts advocates, especially by the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) community (in regard to police brutality).

I will begin by saying it’s IMPRACTICAL as f — k! This is because martial arts training is an investment of your time and money. You’re having to pay anywhere between $50-$150 a month, at least, depending on where you’re going to train. You have to think about how far the place is from your home and workplace. You also have to spend extra time training and that gets stacked on the heavy workload that educators already have.

Again, I doubt any amount of training you equip anyone to effectively deal with a student like that.

There is a chance that the student could come back to school because schools have enacted a policy of “restorative justice” to discipline students instead of handing out detentions, suspensions, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are talking of having the student reintegrate with the rest of the student body.

That would mean the teacher’s aide may have him in her classroom again.

I understand the good intentions of restorative justice and I can get behind it, but it’s problematic to implement restorative justice. The administrators, faculty, and other employees need to be trained in tactics to effectively carry out restorative justice.

San Francisco had success until school district leaders f — ked it up. There was no replacement created and teachers are left in the dark, fending for themselves, which is one of the reasons teachers have left the district or quit teaching.

A proper restorative justice initiative requires the appropriate funding and is not simply made as an “add-on.” Participation on all sides is required or it will not work at all. With the rate at that the GOP has gone on the offensive against education, especially with Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) possibly gearing up for a 2024 U.S. Presidential Run, a good restorative justice initiative is only a dream.

A lot of work has to be done, which requires funding and resources.

If the GOP ultimately gets its way, the concept of restorative justice is a clusterf — k.

Psychology professor Mikhail Lyubansky at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign explains that restorative justice takes a lot of time. It can be emotionally draining and would lead one side to just give up. That’s because there are ongoing conflicts that have yet to be resolved and that need to be explored, which also takes a lot of time. To put it short, effective restorative justice requires many moving pieces.

Also, most educators don’t go into the profession thinking they’ll need to protect themselves. I already had some martial arts experience (Taekwondo, Wado-Ryu Karate, and MMA) when I worked for the county school board and I didn’t have the expectation I’d need to use any of my training and luckily I didn’t.

If teachers had to take self-defense skills, most of them would quit in droves. If not, then there’s the chance that the teacher is a closeted bigot and is itching to hurt someone who’s BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or someone else who’s different from them.

This also leads to why it will be hard to implement restorative justice, a violent assault on a teacher adversely affects the school as a whole. That victim may not be able to return to work for an unknown amount of time or may choose to quit. It will be hard to find people willing to apply to teach at that school. A substitute teacher can refuse an assignment at the school, too, depending on what school board policy is.

BBA logic: Then that boy needs to take martial arts because it’ll teach him discipline and humility!

Yeah, martial arts can help a lot…

However, the lack of discipline, which leads to behavioral problems, is not the core problem, but a symptom of a bigger problem. I have ANTIPATHY towards people who enroll their children because they “lack discipline.” In my experience, discipline wasn’t the main issue of why students weren’t doing what they were told or doing things they weren’t supposed to do.

They claim their kids lack discipline, it’s something DEEPER than that!

The three students I mentioned are shining examples of larger problems in which the lack of discipline is a mere symptom.

I have MORE examples to use.

It was the third month of teaching at the second dojang and we’ve begun the 2020–2021 school year, where I get this new student. This new student was violent and aggressive. The student’s mother was enrolled out of the hope that she’d learn “discipline.”

A month later, the mother tells my first co-worker (who then confided in me) that they (the mother and father) purposely took their daughter off her ADHD meds, so that she’d cause problems at the school she attended. The parents were sore because their daughter’s classroom didn’t have a regular teacher because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the school declined their request to put her in another classroom.

I understand the grief but there are other parents who wish their kids had a regular teacher, too, and don’t do this juvenile s — t.

Yet, they expect me to teach their daughter discipline. How the f — k does that work if the parents purposely take their daughter off her meds with the intention of being a problem student? That’s a rhetorical question, don’t answer it.

I had this other student who didn’t want to do class at all and it was futile to make him even try. The boy would cause problems because he didn’t take his ADHD medicine. When I addressed it with the boy’s father, he insisted that the boy didn’t need his medicine.

Throughout the 2020–2021 school year, the boy has been suspended multiple times.

The dad was dismissive of the problems his son caused but goes apes — t when someone attacks him, which is usually in response to what his son did.

I hope no martial arts school offers to take that boy, talking about the 17-year-old special needs student, as a student. I’m going to be criticized for being a Negative Nancy but I say this because it’s obvious that he won’t behave accordingly. That automatically makes the school an unsafe place for everyone else who attends.

Most martial arts teachers are indoctrinated into believing that rigorous training and discipline will fix things but that’s not the case. They’re drilled with the belief that having that black belt automatically makes them equipped to deal with all these problems or have them believe they’re more equipped then behavioral specialists.

With that special needs student, there’s something going on with his home situation and no amount of martial arts training will ever fix that.