Eddie Mair caller backs self-defence classes for girls in schools

15 March 2021, 18:16

By Sam Sholli

The Government should insist on teaching girls self-defence in schools, a caller has told LBC.

Joan, a retired barrister in Hammersmith, made the case as many women have taken to social media to reveal their personal routines for feeling safe in public, following marketing executive Sarah Everard going missing while walking home from a friend's flat on March 3.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Home Secretary Priti Patel acknowledged the death of the 33-year-old has struck a chord with many women across the country, and their online accounts are "so powerful" because "every single one of us can relate to them".

Joan told LBC's Eddie Mair: "Seven of my 13 grandchildren are girls and the older ones are in the same age group as poor Sarah [Everard]."

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"In the area in which they live, they've all got stories of being scared when walking home in the dark.

"My youngest granddaughter is aged 17 and her mother is my youngest daughter. And she says that she's going to get her training in self-defence.

"And I think all schools should do this for girls. [They should] train them [in] how to defend themselves physically and if that happened a lot of this might disappear out of the lives of girls.

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"I do strongly think that that would be a very good idea and that the Government should insist on it."

She added that although progress has been made when it comes to equality between men and women, the latter are "still vulnerable and they're still looked on as prey by lots of men".