Los Altos High School is bringing a forgotten but needed program — professional self defense training — back to PE, empowering students to protect and advocate for themselves . Oakland-based coaching group André Salvage and Associates are teaching self defense and conflict resolution in every freshman PE class from February 4 to March 14.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Harise Stein, a Stanford professor and former LAHS parent, covered the cost of the program. Following the pandemic, however, funding dried up and PE teachers had to improvise.
“We came up with our own curriculum and it was okay, but it wasn’t great,” PE department coordinator Kiernan Raffo said. “We’re not trained in any sort of self defense — it’s a lifelong commitment to go through that training.”
According to Raffo, a large factor for the class reinstatement was the Talon article, “Los Altos High School, teach me to defend myself!” written by junior Matilda Haney Foulds in early 2024. The article urged the administration to prioritize self defense courses. This year, Principal Tracey Runeare led a fundraiser to reinstate a self defense program for all freshmen, as they are required to take PE.
Coaches teach students about listening to their intuition, responding to peer pressure, avoiding dangerous situations, and physically defending themselves if needed.
“What they teach the students in that period is just so important,” Raffo said. “The stuff that they walk away with they can take with them into college and life.”
“They taught us about peer pressure and showed us the importance of saying ‘no,’” freshman Sarp Akalin said. “It’s just a really helpful course, especially in your teen years.”
In order to teach skills that students can use in the real world, coaches prioritize building up their natural intuition — recognizing dangerous situations, and knowing when to fight back.
“Everybody is born with intuition, but sometimes we don’t really know how it works in our bodies; but it keeps you from going in the wrong direction,” self defense coach Katie Sasso said. “What we want to do is spark that back in the kids.”
According to Sasso and coach Edgar Meza, students are usually open minded and interested.
“They’ve never really had somebody really show them how to do it, so you’d be surprised at how many of them want to learn how to fight,” Sasso said.
The course teaches students a series of simple steps that can be applied to common situations, like how to attack vital body parts when they are grabbed from behind. Coaches maintain an environment that is both comfortable and challenging.
“We don’t want the course to be so serious that students feel intimidated, but we also want them to respect it, so we’re trying to find that balance,” Sasso said.
“A program like this is very needed for today in our society and I can say that from my own experiences, since I had to deal with things like this since I was a kid,” Meza said. “The more that you know, the more calm you become because you know what to do.”
