How Children Can Handle School Violence - KYTX CBS 19 Tyler Longview News Weather Sports

By Meghan McDermott

Experts pointed out that children are growing up in a very different world, one with increasingly violent cartoons, music, television, et cetera. And the affects are carrying into school.

"Things are way more progressed than they used to be, so it's a lot more difficult for children," said Jeremy Flowers, the Primary Prevention Facilitator for the East Texas Crisis Center.  

He added, "if kids see one kid acting bad they tend to grasp on to that, and they all join in."

His prevention work focuses on young men in junior high and high school.

"Children, we wanna change beliefs and attitudes and behaviors, because they adopt them at a really young age," said Flowers.

And one of the biggest lessons he tackles is anger.

"Anger is a big issue. A lot of kids don't know how to express it," said Flowers.

Here at the Lonestar MMA gym Drew Arthur is combating the violence head on.

"We actually tell them what to do, how to think and how to try and get away, and what to do when they do get away," said Drew Arthur, Co-owner of Lonestar MMA.

He is teaching children self-defense.

"Most of the time they think they're playing when they're actually getting fit and actually getting life-saving skills," said Arthur.

Whether it's mixed martial arts, brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing, judo, or one of the other classes at Lonestar MMA, Arthur says it's all teaching students the safest and most effective way to get out of a bad situation.

"A lot of ways of thinking is using the open mat like out there, but not every time someone's attacked they're attacked a kin to that like in a parking lot. It's in a closed area where desks or table tops or halls," said Arthur.

Training that could ensure the safety of your child.

Flowers adds that if we can teach kids to express anger in the correct and positive form, then we can control a lot of this bad behavior.