School: Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Track: Youth Section: Safety Defense Course (standalone course; self-paced) Presented by: Minister Destiny Marie Morgan, Muslim Ordained Minister
This lesson is educational information and is not legal advice. Laws vary by state. If you are in danger right now, call 911.
Before you start
- This space is private. Your answers are checked in your own browser as you go; your progress and scores are saved only on this device.
- We never ask your name. Not here, not on the certificate. If you earn a certificate, you download it first and write your own name on it after.
- How you pass this course: Take the Safety Defense test at the end and score 80% or higher to earn this course's certificate. You can retake it as many times as you need — each retake presents the questions in a different order, with the answer choices in a different order too.
- This course is about staying safe, not about fighting. You will learn how to notice trouble early, how to stay away from it, how to use your voice, how to calm a moment down, and how to get away and get help. Those skills protect real kids every day.
- If you are in danger right now: call 911. You can also call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line, any time, day or night.
The lesson
1. What safety defense really means — and the order that matters
Safety defense means protecting yourself in a smart order. In this school, defense always goes in this order, and the order is the lesson:
- Awareness first — notice what is happening around you.
- Avoidance — stay away from the trouble you noticed.
- Strong verbal boundaries — use a loud, clear voice to say no and call attention.
- De-escalation basics — calm words that help a tense moment get smaller, when it is safe to try them.
- Escape and getting help — get away and reach a safe adult or a safe place.
Notice what is not at the top of that list: fighting. Physical skills, if they are ever needed, exist for one reason only — to create an escape, so you can run to safety. They never exist to win a fight or prove you are tough. A smaller person does not need to beat a bigger person — only one free second and a safe direction to run.
One more rule runs through this whole course: physical skills must be learned in person, with a qualified instructor — a book or an app cannot teach your body. Nothing here teaches harm for its own sake, weapons, or breaking the law. This course teaches you to be hard to hurt and quick to get help — and that is real strength.
2. Awareness first — your earliest, strongest protection
Awareness is noticing the world while there is still time to choose. It costs nothing and protects you before anything scary happens.
- Head up, eyes moving. Glance around as you walk. Notice people, cars, open stores, and the way out. A phone in front of your face in parking lots and quiet blocks steals your earliest warning.
- Ears open. One earbud out — or both out — in parking lots, on quiet streets, and near traffic, so you can hear footsteps and cars.
- Notice feelings as information. A tight stomach or a sudden wish to leave is your brain reporting what it noticed. You do not need proof before you act on a bad feeling. Moving away and being wrong costs nothing.
- Know your exits. In a store, a park, or a bus, quietly note: if I needed to leave fast, where would I go, and who would I go to?
- Watch for changes. A person who keeps matching your turns, a car that slows beside you twice, a stranger who moves closer every time you move away — a pattern is worth more than any single moment. Trust the pattern and change your plan.
Awareness is not fear — most people are safe and kind. Noticing is what lets you relax: you already know where help is and how you would leave.
3. Avoidance — the step that ends most trouble before it starts
Avoidance means using what awareness showed you. It is the most powerful step in this course, and it is completely in your control.
- Change your route. Cross the street, turn into an open store or another busy public place, or walk toward a group of people. There is no prize for staying on your planned path.
- Skip the shortcut. A dark alley or empty lot saves two minutes and removes witnesses and exits. Take the lit, busy way, even when it is longer.
- Tell your people where you are. Let a trusted adult know your route and when you expect to arrive. A plan someone else knows about is a plan that can bring help.
- Do not go with a person to a second place. If someone pushes you to leave a public place for somewhere private, the answer is no — walk toward people instead. Safe adults do not pressure kids to move away from witnesses.
Avoidance is never cowardly. It is the whole plan working as designed.
4. Your voice — strong verbal boundaries
Your voice is a safety tool you always carry. A loud, clear voice tells the person to stop, tells everyone nearby something is wrong, and reminds you that you are allowed to make a scene.
Words that work are short, loud, and specific:
- "No! Stay back!"
- "I don't know you! Leave me alone!"
- "Help! This person is following me!"
- "Stop! Don't touch me!"
Practice helps. Say the words out loud at home so they are ready before you ever need them. Speaking up to a person who is making you unsafe is not rude — you do not owe a quiet, polite voice to someone ignoring your boundaries. Yell if you need to. Drawing attention is the point.
Stand tall, step back to keep distance, and face toward people and exits. If a person keeps coming after clear words, do not stay to argue — turn and go, fast, toward people and help.
5. De-escalation basics — calming a moment down, at your age level
De-escalation means helping a tense moment get smaller instead of bigger. For young people, this mostly fits peer trouble — an argument heating up, or someone trying to start a fight at school or online.
- Lower your own temperature first. Slow your breathing and unclench your hands. A calm face gives the other person less to react to.
- Use few, plain words. "I don't want to fight." "Let's take a break." Short lines are easier to hear than speeches.
- Do not trade insults, threats, or dares. Every insult is fuel. Refusing to add fuel is not losing — it is choosing how the story ends.
- Give space and an exit. Step back, and let the other person walk away. Cornered and embarrassed people escalate; a way out calms things down.
- Bring in an adult early. A teacher, coach, or counselor stepping in is not snitching. It is the plan. If words are turning into threats or shoving, skip talking and go straight to an adult.
Know the limit: de-escalation is for moments that can still be talked down. If a person is much bigger, is a stranger, has grabbed you, or you feel real danger, you do not owe them a calm conversation. Voice, escape, and help come first.
6. Body safety and safe adults — the rules underneath everything
Everything in this course sits on body safety rules that never change:
- Your body belongs to you. Private parts are the parts covered by a swimsuit. No one should touch yours, ask you to touch theirs, or show you sexual pictures or ask you for them — except for a real medical exam, explained to you, by a health professional.
- Secrets about touching are never secrets to keep.
- Your no counts with everyone — relatives, coaches, older teens, family friends — for hugs, tickling, lap-sitting, and anything else. You can move away, say stop, and tell.
- Most unsafe people are not strangers. Harm can come from a person a family knows and trusts. Telling is right even when the person is known and liked by others.
- Keep telling until someone acts. Name three safe adults — your trusted-adult map — and if the first one does not act, tell the next one. If something already happened, it was not your fault, no matter what you wore, said, or did before it.
You can reach Childhelp at 1-800-422-4453 or RAINN at 1-800-656-4673 if telling in person feels impossible right now. A call is also telling.
7. If someone grabs you — break away and run, and nothing more
This is the only physical part of this course, and it stays at the level public children's safety programs teach. The goal is never to fight. The goal is break away and run to a safe adult or a safe place.
If a person grabs your arm, your clothes, or your bag:
- Yell, loud and specific. "Let go! I don't know you! Help!" Yelling is part of the escape — it brings eyes and help toward you.
- Drop your weight. Make your body heavy — bend your knees and sink down low, like you are suddenly too heavy to move. A person trying to pull you has to fight your whole weight, and that buys you seconds.
- Wriggle, twist, and pull free. Turn and pull against the grip so you can slip loose — the way a qualified instructor can show you safely in person. If it is your bag being held, let the bag go. Things can be replaced. You cannot be.
- Create one free second — then use it to run, not to keep fighting. Public safety programs for children sometimes teach a quick kick toward the person's shin or a scrape of your shoe down their shin to make them let go. That is taught here as a concept only: a startling move whose only job is to open your escape. The second you are free, you run. You do not stay. You do not chase. You do not go back for your things.
- Run to people, light, and help. A store counter, a group of adults, a house with lights on where you can ask for help, a crossing guard, a safe adult. Then tell what happened and call 911 with an adult's help if you need to.
Two safety warnings belong here. First, never practice grabbing games roughly with friends or siblings — practice here means your voice, your routes, and your plan. Second, if a person has a weapon, do not try any of this — give them the object they want, move away, and get help. No belonging is worth your body.
8. After it is over — getting help is part of defense
What you do after a scare matters almost as much as what you did during it.
- Tell a safe adult the same day, even if you got away and even if you think you handled it. Adults can watch for the person, change your route, and tell the school or the police so another kid is protected too.
- Write down what you remember while it is fresh: where, when, what the person looked like and said, and which way they went.
- Expect feelings afterward. Shaky, angry, tearful, numb, trouble sleeping — all normal after a fright. Talk about it, more than once if you need to. If hard feelings stay heavy, call or text 988 or text HOME to 741741.
- Keep the credit where it belongs. If you noticed, avoided, yelled, broke away, or told — you did your job. Nothing that happened is your fault, ever.
Words to know — Safety Defense Course
- Awareness — noticing people, places, exits, and changes around you while there is still time to choose.
- Avoidance — staying away from trouble you noticed: changing your route, keeping distance, and choosing busy, lit places.
- Verbal boundary — a loud, clear spoken line, such as "No! Stay back!", that tells a person to stop and tells others something is wrong.
- De-escalation — using calm words, space, and time to help a tense moment get smaller instead of bigger.
- Escape — getting free and getting away to a safe adult or a safe place; the goal of any physical move in this course.
- Safe adult — a grown-up who believes you, does not hurt you, and will act to help; also called a trusted adult.
- Second place — a private place a person tries to get you to move to, away from witnesses; the answer is always no.
- Break away — freeing yourself from a grab so you can run to safety — never staying to fight.
Myths vs facts — Safety Defense Course
- Myth: Safety defense means learning to fight and win. Fact: Defense in this school runs awareness, avoidance, voice, de-escalation, and escape — in that order. Physical moves exist only to create an escape, never to win a fight.
- Myth: Yelling at an adult is always disrespectful, so you should stay polite and quiet. Fact: A loud voice aimed at a person who is ignoring your boundaries is a safety tool, not disrespect. Drawing attention protects you.
- Myth: If you got away, there is no reason to tell anyone. Fact: Telling protects you and other kids, changes unsafe routes, and lets adults act. Getting away and telling are both parts of the plan.
- Myth: Watching videos of moves is the same as learning them. Fact: Physical skills must be learned in person, with a qualified instructor — a book, an app, or a video cannot teach your body.
What would you do? — Safety Defense Course
The situation: Walking home from the library, you notice a man you do not know by a parked car ahead, watching you. He steps toward you and says, "Hey — come here, I need your help with something in my car." Your stomach feels tight. The street is quiet, but there is an open corner store half a block behind you.
Walk it through:
- Awareness did its job. You noticed him, you noticed he was watching, and your tight stomach is information. You do not need proof of bad intent to act.
- Avoidance comes next. Stop while there is still distance. Do not walk up to the car, and do not go with him to a second place. Turn and walk — then run, if you need to — back toward the open store and people.
- Use your voice if he follows or calls after you. Loud and specific: "No! Stay back! I don't know you!" Drawing attention is the goal, not a conversation.
- Escape to a safe place and a safe adult. Go inside the store, tell the person at the counter what happened, and ask them to call a trusted adult for you — or call 911 if he is still there or following.
- Tell afterward, the same day. Your report can change your route and protect the next kid on that walk.
Try this — Safety Defense Course
Build your escape-and-help plan on paper, then practice the safe parts.
- ☐ I can say the order from memory: awareness, avoidance, verbal boundaries, de-escalation, escape and help.
- ☐ I practiced my loud voice out loud: "No! Stay back! I don't know you!"
- ☐ I named my safe places on my usual routes — a store, a library, a rec center desk, a house where I can ask for help.
- ☐ I walked my main route in my mind and removed the quiet shortcuts; my main route is the lit, busy one.
- ☐ My trusted-adult map has three names, and at least one of them knows my usual routes.
- ☐ I know my rule about bags and things: let the thing go, run to people, tell the same day.
- ☐ I saved these numbers where I can find them: 911, 988, Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741), Childhelp 1-800-422-4453.
Resources to keep — Safety Defense Course
- Emergency: 911
- Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988
- Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741
- Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453
- RAINN: 1-800-656-4673
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
- Your trusted adults, your school counselor or nurse, and the staff at your library or rec center — people in your daily life who can act.
What you earned / what's next — Safety Defense Course
✅ Safety Defense Course complete (test score 80% or higher): You can state the defense order without hesitating, spot a pattern early, change your route without embarrassment, use a loud verbal boundary, calm a peer moment down or walk away from it, break away and run if you are ever grabbed, and tell a safe adult the same day.
Your certificate
Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Certificate of Completion — Safety Defense Course
This certificate is presented by Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan
Awarded to: ______________________________ (write your name here after you download — your name is never collected or stored by this school)
Date completed: ______________
Congratulations. You learned that real defense starts with noticing, that your voice is strength, and that getting away and getting help is always a win. Stay aware, stay loud when you need to be, and keep your safe adults close. I am proud of you. — Minister Destiny Marie Morgan
This is a certificate of educational completion from Minister Destiny Testimony Schools. It is not a state license or a government certification.
What's next: Keep your trusted-adult map and safety plan current, and share the order — awareness, avoidance, voice, de-escalation, escape and help — with a younger kid who walks a route like yours.
Minister Destiny Testimony Schools — Youth. Lessons are educational information, written in plain language. If you or someone you know is in danger, call 911. Help lines: 988 (call/text) · Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741) · Childhelp 1-800-422-4453.