Tristyn Bailey Foundation self defense class serves young women and girls

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla – A St. Johns County family is turning tragedy into purpose 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey was killed in 2021. Her family is now hoping to help others defend themselves against a dangerous situation.

Friday night the Tristyn Bailey foundation along with other local organization hosted the first of four self defense classes. They aim to teaching young girls and women these potentially life saving skills.

For Tristyn Bailey’s mother, Stacy she hopes giving young girls and women the knowledge of self defense can help save them in a scary situation.

“They can learn how to defend themselves, which my daughter never got the opportunity to do. She fought for her life. And he overcame her. And I don’t want somebody else to have to go through that if they can learn a technique that can save them. That’s what we want,” Stacey Bailey said.

Friday night was the first of four self defense classes hosted by the Tristyn Bailey Foundation in partnership with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. Lieutenant Jessica Hines with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says the classes are aimed at girls who are in Tristyn’s age group.

“I want to make sure that the girls see these things and recognize that even though we live in an amazing community, bad things can happen. And then we give them an opportunity to be able to defend themselves. So you know, if they’re faced with a scenario where someone is trying to overpower them, that they have the ability to fight back and survive,” Lt. Jessica Hines said.

Lt. Hines shared several tips for women and girls to stay safe:

• Share your location with people if you’re going somewhere

• Make sure you’re not going out alone

• Be aware of your surroundings, and make sure you’re not distracted by your phone or anything like that.

• Be ready to defend yourself and to not be afraid to strike someone who’s trying to attack you.

“Keeping in mind that one of the best assets that women have is where strength is in our lower body. So as you’re defending yourself, knee strikes are absolutely a phenomenal defense. So if you grab your attacker and throw some good knee strikes then you’ll have good success,” Hines said.

Bailey hopes the young girls who attended Friday’s class will share the information they learn with their friends.

“I think it’s so important. Realizing that there are so many young ladies out there that don’t want to know what to do, when they’re faced with a bad situation,” Bailey said. “And seeing that we have this many people starting, I think it can only continue to grow.”

Friday night’s class was filled with young girls and women ready to learn how to defend themselves. Bailey prays the information from the class will be shared throughout the community.

“I’m praying every single one of Tristyn’s friends and her teammates, I pray that they join these classes because I don’t everybody want I never want somebody to go through what my childhood had to go through,” Bailey said.

If you missed tonight’s self-defense class there are three more classes happening this year, the next one is Saturday May 4.