That's because the third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders Friday learned the ins and outs of how to avoid, look for, and deal with the lunch money-hungry predators.
"They're unhappy with themselves," said Jim True, who gave the demonstration on bully awareness in Plympton's gymnasium. "They want to make themselves feel powerful by making you feel weak."
True, who owns the Shorin-Ryu Karate Academy on Waverley Oaks Road, was appropriately dressed in his karate attire, but assured the students he didn't want them fighting at recess.
"I'm not going to tell you to fight the bullies," True said. "There's so many things that you can do, you've just got to be able to use them."
Those things included True's ABC's of Self-Defense: Awareness and avoidance, Boundary Setting and bargaining, and Control and combat Skills.
True brought several students up to the front of the gym to help him act out scenarios a student might land up in with a bully. He told them it's important to be aware of their surroundings, and to try to walk away from bullies who might want to pick a fight or steal lunch money.
Still, he admitted walking away isn't always easy, and showed them ways they can trick bullies or even lie to them to get away from the situation, and go and tell an adult what happened.
"Bullies are gonna call you all kinds of names," True said. "You've got to be creative, you've got to be able to come up with ideas. You don't need to say please, or pretty please. You've got to be strong and demanding."
And if a bully takes your favorite toy or baseball or sunglasses, True said to do what you can to bargain with them to get your possession back.
The students themselves laughed heartily at some of the scenarios as they watched their classmates pretend to be angry or bullying, but they received his message with understanding, and some were even impressed with the potential effectiveness of simply turning around and leaving the presence of a confrontation.
"I liked the part when he told them to walk away," said third-grader Eva Lin, referring to a scenario True acted out with another student.
Classmate Adrian Pantoja agreed, and enjoyed the part of that scenario "when he said, 'stop!, go away!' "
The group that sat on the gym floor for the presentation was much larger than at two previous presentations given earlier Friday by True on stranger safety to students from kindergarten through second grade, but True said he believed his message was effectively received by the students.
"I think that it went very well," True said. "For such a large group, they were exceptional."
Matt Perkins can be reached at 781-398-8009 or at mperkins@cnc.com.
