I realize that it's possible to define a static class method as private and protected in PHP. This allows for an instantiated class, or public static method to access it's own private/protected static methods.
protected static function jumpOver ()
However I'm not sure if this is legal in the sense of OOP design. I can't find any real info stating it's ok to do this. I'm worried PHP may "patch" this in future versions if this is not a valid and break my scripts.