Armoring the Next Generation of Kids

In a recent article on CBS News entitled “Bullying begins even before kids start school,” experts talk about how weight plays a role in who becomes a bully or not. “Dutch researchers report that obese boys are more likely to bully and be bullied than their thinner peers and the vicious cycle begins before these children ever step foot inside a school,” lead researcher Pauline Jansen and her colleagues at Erasmus University Rotterdam said. This has been an issue in schools more recently as technology has grown over the years from prank phone calls all the way to Facebook messaging and Social Media, which makes it easy to attack peers on different lines of communication. One thing is for sure, this problem is not going to be eliminated anytime soon. With that being said, there are many programs that are increasingly popping up to help students, their parents and schools to prevent these violent acts. Whether verbal or physical altercations, these are instances that can’t be taken lightly. Enter, Mike Murray and his wife Mena. They have seen their children grow up and graduate college and just opened up a PRO Martial Arts in Troy, Michigan in July of this year to support the next generation of children. Mike and Mena were looking to identify an opportunity that would benefit the kids in their community and help families. “It was almost a no brainer in terms of the character education program, which is certainly critical and needed,” said Mike. “When you combine that with the fitness benefits, and the opportunity to help keep kids safe from bullies and predators, we could see that it was a tremendous program and something we knew we wanted to be a part of.” The ARMOR® program that is offered exclusively by PRO Martial Arts is a resource that combats bullying. It teaches children how to stay safe in an increasingly dangerous world. The ARMOR® program teaches children how to stand tall against bullying behavior and predatory activity –both online and in daily life. Based on research from reputable sources specializing in child safety, child psychology and crime prevention, PRO Martial Arts offers weekly lessons on Bullying Prevention and Predator Prevention that students can enter at any time to gain an enhanced ability to assess, avoid and, if necessary, defend themselves from danger. “One way to address bullying behavior is to model healthy social relationships and build children's self-confidence,” said Susan Tortolero, a professor of public health at the University of Texas School Of Public Health in Houston in a CBS article. If your child has a risk factor for kids picking on them, it's really important to give them skills to cope with those things and to build their self-esteem," she said. "If you teach your children to problem-solve and how to make decisions, then they will be more successful." Mike and Mena won’t be stopping at opening just one PRO Martial Arts; they plan on opening 2-3 more schools in the area in the years ahead. “We know that The ARMOR® program is too valuable and that these additional locations will give us an opportunity to reach and help more kids," Mike added.