Vanderbilt Student To Testify In D.C.

WSMV-TV - National News

Self-Defense Advocate Wants Annual Training

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An 18-year-old Vanderbilt University freshman will testify before a Congressional committee Thursday in Washington.

Dallas Jessup advocates teaching annual self-defense skills to young women beginning in middle schools so that they can protect themselves from rapists, murderers and human traffickers.

Jessup has a black belt in martial arts. In high school, she began an outreach program to empower girls and women to stand up and fight.

Her movie, "Just Yell Fire," is available for free on the Internet and has been downloaded more than 700,000 times.

Jessup said she feels honored to be invited to appear before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives."

Especially with the sex trafficking industry, where there are more than 12 million people taken every year to be sold as sexual slaves, girls need to know how to defend themselves. And that's where I come in," Jessup said. "If you give her two or three techniques to save her life, she can. And that's what Congress can do. They can put the life of a teenage girl back in her hands."

Download the free video at www.justyellfire.com.