Lesley, you have my sympathy but your situation just makes my blood boil!!

It is a sad reflection on society that we have come to this level of disrespect. Personaly I would blame the majority of these problem kids on lack of parenting skills and the complete lack of any discipline due to the Human Rights Act. It is supposed to protect us, but seems to entirley omit the fact that some people will not respect others human rights. Parents fear disciplining their kids incase they are taken to court. When I did something wrong I got a thick ear or worse. It did me the world of good because I knew if I did something wrong there would be consequences.. usually painful ones! Kids will push their boundaries, they always have, if their are no boundaries there is nothing to stop them.. Bring back the smack, the slipper, the cane and even the birch for those caught with knives..

sorry.. rant over!

You always have the right to defend yourself with 'reasonable' force - it's the law.

You will react the way that you've trained. I don't believe in the current RBSD trend to 'create situations' in the Dojo as they're still not real and often make people more scared and panicky.

I don't like 'emergency mindset' or 'survival mindset' as they intimate fear. I like 'hunters mindset' as that means you are utilising cold strategy to defeat your prey.

You have to work out your philosophy, understand and directly 'know' it, you have to work out your general strategy and then live it on a daily basis including in the Dojo. Whenever you practice solo form you must develop the power of your imagination and feel the adrenaline working with you controlling it. Never 'spar' always work on slow, real attacks, negating them and taking them to a finish with the full power of your positive imagination.

Think of yourself as a 'peacekeeper' as opposed to a 'warrior' that way you will simply seek to re-establish peace and are unlikely go over the top.

It is not good that kids are turning on people this way, It's also not good that teachers could lose everything should they defend themselfs, but what has already been pointed out reasonable force is OK. But what is reasonable? to a situation? to a person?

This is an interesting point, especially as it is a few months now since it happened and the boy is still in my class.

Basically, if we were on the street then I would have had no hesitation in defending myself but there definitely seems to be a difference between the classroom and life.

Yes, legally I can defend myself with resonable force and if I had have done I wouldn't have been charged with it. However, teaching being what it is, I would almost certainly lose my job and never teach again, regardless of the situation.

There are several examples of teachers losing their jobs whilst defending themselves after having been equitted in court.

Problem is, when you are a teacher you are never told what to do or what you can do when you are in the position of being assulted by a student. This is something that should really be addressed during teacher training but I guess the powers that be stick their heads in the sand and won't admit how often it happens.

Sorry, have ranted myself a bit as well!

There's been alot of good points here about defense and mind sets, but I would like to express one more angle...

Psychology...

It is possible to neutralise certain situations with the mind, and not violence. I say this with regards to 1 on 1 situations as its easier to deal with 1 mind than a mob.

It is possible to talk someone down, especialy kids but it requires you to understand them, and also switch your mind into different states in order to calm a situation. I have been researching and learning about psychology for a while now (years in fact) and I am starting to understand this concept more. Now its not a guarantee but the good thing about this approach is that not only can you neautralise a situation but you can also help prevent it from happening and enforce your own discipline.

Understand their psychology, understand a childs mind and how to deal with it and you will deal with these kids better because after all they are kids, kids minds in nearly adult bodies.