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Jay & Joy 14: Joy Learns Karate |
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Joy was going to class when she saw Mike – a boy who always liked to brag – hiding a gun in his locker. Mike shot her a mean glance and slammed the locker door so hard it made Joy jump with fear. Joy ran to class, her heart pounding. She did not know what to do.
“Students, let me have your homework”, Joy’s teacher said.
With a red crayon Joy wrote HELP! GUN IN LOCKER 39 across her homework and handed it to the teacher.
“Is this a joke?” asked the teacher. Joy shook her head.
“Read the next chapter, students,” the teacher said, and then she locked the door and Joy saw her whispering into her cell phone.
After class Joy saw lots of police and Mike getting into the backseat of a police car. He had an unhappy, worried look on his face.
The next day a police officer came to Joy’s school and talked to the class. The officer explained why it is dangerous to bring a weapon to school, even if it is only a toy.
“It was just a plastic water pistol,” she said. “But toys look real so they can scare people just the same.”
After the talk Joy asked the woman how students could feel more powerful and popular, without bragging and doing such silly things to get attention, the way Mike did.
“Come to my karate class!” the woman said. During the day I am a policewoman and at night I am a karate teacher. I have lots of girls your age in my classes. It’s loads of fun, plus you can learn self-defense. You’ll automatically feel more safe and sure of yourself, and others will respect you. It’s a great way to become more popular.”
“Can I bring my cat?” asked Joy.
“Sure, why not?” said Joy’s new karate teacher. “And I will give you a karate uniform to wear. But we don’t have any uniforms for cats!”
Jay and Joy went to class, and while Jay did karate kicks against a ball of string, Joy learned how to hit and kick the punching bag. She even learned to break a board in half with a karate chop!
After a few classes Joy earned her first karate belt. It is yellow and other karate students see it and give her high-fives and say “Way to go, Joy!”
For her next belt rank Joy is learning some new kicks and chops, and also how to do karate with words. By knowing how to talk in a respectful, calm way, Joy stops fights before they start. When somebody gets mad, Joy does verbal karate and calms them down again.
That way she wins without ever throwing a punch – and can defeat people who are bigger and stronger than her – which is a very cool and powerful thing to know how to do.
Jay just purrs, and that kind of cat karate seems to do the trick for him.
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Jay and Joy 
