LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-“This is the beginning of my campaign and I will work relentlessly to get the support it needs to pass and for us to set a precedent for the state and nation. Our city needs it, our families need and our nation needs it,” ReAn Jaffe said.
Self defense in schools, that’s the goal for one mother after her daughter was murdered in 2005.
ReAn Jaffe is doing whatever she can to get people’s attention about the need for safety and protection.
Jaffe says she thinks about her daughter Madeline every day.
She was murdered 14 years ago and her mother believes self defense could have saved her life.
Now, she’s trying to make sure others get the training they need and are always prepared for whatever happens.
“We won’t stop until we pass PLAYE,” Jaffe said.
Standing on the corner of 3rd and Main Street in Little Rock, ReAn Jaffe is determined to keep fighting for her daughter.
“I don’t want her to be forgotten,” Jaffe said.
She held a sign Monday afternoon to honor her daughter and talk to people about a bill she wrote named PLAYE.
“We miss her everyday. There is never a day where we don’t think of her or miss her,” Jaffe said.
Her 18-year-old daughter Madeline Jaffe was murdered in 2005 just two months after graduating from Central High School.
“Right in the open, in the public she was stripped, beaten, raped and stabbed more than 33 times,” Jaffe said.
Her body was found in a dumpster behind a business on 65th Street and Lancaster.
“There are just no words for that,” Jaffe said.
On Monday she spent hours talking to people as they walked by.
“Thank y’all. I want to give every kid a fighting chance,” Jaffe said. “Powerful leverage against your enemy.”
The bill would require all schools in Arkansas to teach self-defense classes.
“It gives kids self confidence, it gives the discipline. There are a lot of principles behind this that it’s not just protection,” Jaffe said.
It’s protection Jaffe says she wishes her daughter would have known.
“She would be 31 today, so I missed kids and possibly grand-kids. Her presence, her smile and her laugh,” Jaffe said.
All she has is memories and pictures of Madeline. Jaffe says she is not giving up.
“Not for her, not for all the children who need us. Never ever ever. There is no price to put on a life,” Jaffe said.
Jaffe says Madeline had dreams of becoming an artist and designer.
According to court documents, Ramon Williamson was charged with capital murder back in 2008.
Jaffe says she is already getting in touch with representatives in her area, making calls to the Mayor and Governor’s Office.
She tried to pass PLAYE last year, but didn’t have any luck.
Several people stopped to take pictures and show their support.
Jaffe says this is the first day of her campaign and she’s not stopping until the bill is signed into law.
