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This article was published in The Saanich News - August 24, 2005

Sensei's Despair

by Sheila Potter
Saanich News

SAANICH - Two-time world champion kick boxer Stan Peterec spends hours teaching kids, including his son Shane, how to avoid violence.
  But at some point, there is nothing you can do to prevent a random attack, he says. And even Peterec wouldn't be able to fend off more than two attackers at a time.
  Peterec's son Shane Peterec was part of a group of young teens that passed by the wrong group of eight 18- to 20-year-old youths outside Mac's store on Shelbourne Street at 11:20 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27.
  The case is before the courts, but Shane Peterec and his friends say the older teens mobbed one of Shane's friends who is just 17, stomping him and giving him a mild concussion and breaking his nose.
  They say the attack was random. They did not know their assailants.
  Police arrested two youths in connection with the assault.
  The event shook Peterec, who is finding it increasingly hard to understand teen violence and how to prevent it. The area, Shelbourne and Cedar hill, is not known to be rough.
  Fourteen-year-old Shane Peterec and his friends were picking up a video when they were attacked. All four of the boys, ranging in age from 12 to 19, have martial arts training.
  But practicing moves in the gym is totally different than being attacked on the street.


Sharon Tiffin/SAANICH NEWS
Stan Peterec defends against a fake knife attack from Ron Bridges outside Peterec's gym
  "I don't think they'd ever had a street encounter before," said Peterec. "I try and tell kids what to do, but even for me, I just don't understand it"   "There was nothing like this when I was young," said Peterec.
  Peterec is no stranger to teen violence. He remembers being bullied himself in elementary school by a highschool boy. He grew up in the 1970s in Port Alberni - it was a rough town. He learned self defense through martial arts, and two years later on advice from his martial arts teacher, he faced his bully, who left him alone after that.
  Today, people of all ages walk through Peterec's doors looking for self-defense tips. He also gives seminars on self defense at Victoria area secondary schools such as Oak Bay high.
  The learning goes both ways: The teens tell Peterec what they face. For the last decade, he's seen an increasing number of girls bullied. But the most baffling trend for Peterec is when teens gang up on one victim. It lacks the unspoken rules that Peterec remembers.

  Back in Peterec's day, fighting was usually one-on-one. And buddies would break the fight apart if they felt someone had taken enough. Now it seems buddies jump in, and curbings lead to comas and death.
  "I've talked to the kids and even they don't know where it (mobbing) started," he said. Peterec thinks that mob attacks are more common than many people know.
  Just yesterday, I had another." Peterec said a young boy came in to the centre and said that he and a friend were attacked by six guys when they were walking through a park.
  The assault that Peterec's son witnessed was the third mobbing in Saanich this summer. On June 30, two teenaged boys, 15 and 17 years old, told police they were walking through Hampton Park, when they were attacked by four older teens. A 17-year-old and 18-year-old were arrested.

 Just a few days earlier a Saanich resident was walking home along Cedar Hill Cross Road when he was hit from behind. As he lay on the ground disoriented and bleeding from a gash to his head, the man heard what sounded like the voices of teenagers making comments such as "hurry up," and "come on, get his wallet."  The incident shook the man and his wife's confidence in her suburban neighbourhood.

Are drugs involved?

  Peterec wonders if drugs are adding an element of unpredictability to attacks. Two teens recently showed a curious lack of judgment when they attacked Peterec's friend and fellow kick boxer, Chris Peak. Peak, a King of the Cage contestant, is six-foot-three, 240 pounds, bald and tattooed. "He looks like he just came out of jail" Peterec said.
  Two teens approached Peak outside a bank machine in Esquimalt. They asked Peak for the time and when Peak went to look at his watch, one of the teens punched him. Peak punched back and one teen went down, the other ran.
  "When I heard that he (Peak) go mugged, I was laughing so hard" said Peterec. "That's either really crazy - or really high." More seriously, Peterec speculates the teens were so desperate for a fix that they didn't notice who they were targeting.

  Peterec wonders if the teens involved in his son's case were on drugs. Shane told his dad that one guy didn't seem drunk as much as wired, talking really fast. "It scared the hell out of my son," Peterec said.

What is the solution?

  If you can't ward off an attack with big biceps and a confident attitude, and you can't fight your way out when you are outnumbered, what can you do?
  Peterec isn't sure. He blames Americanization for growing violence and a gang mentality among teens. One thing he doesn't advocate is living in fear and only going out in groups. "You can't walk through life like that," he said. "The best defense is awareness. I believe everyone has a sixth sense - bells go off. You just know something isn't right." When that happens - run.