Kids’ Safety is Ultimate Goal of radKIDS{-?}
By Mary Lou Brink, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Oct. 29–Editor’s note: The United Way supports more than 70 services in Allen County carried out by 36 agencies that have or will touch almost all our lives in some way. This is one in a series of stories The News-Sentinel is publishing to help generate a better awareness about what United Way agencies are designed to accomplish and some of the lives they affect.
High-pitched voices shrieking, “Stay back, you’re not my mom” were followed by little clenched fists hammering the air.
An attempted child abduction or abuse? No, but it might have been.
It was a recent self-defense exercise for about 14 third-graders at Washington Elementary School. .
The radKIDS{-®} program (resisting aggression defensively) is a national 8- to 10-hour program that is offered locally through the Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau. It teaches children in kindergarten through fifth grade how to stay safe in various situations from dog attacks to attempted abduction or assault.
The one-hour-per-week program started at Indian Village Elementary School in the 2005-06 school year and has paid off for at least one youngster so far, said Rya Morgan, outreach specialist with the Women’s Bureau and teacher of the class.
Amari Muhammed, a third-grader at Washington, said she was outside her home in Fort Wayne one day when she noticed an unfamiliar car circling the area. She said the man driving wanted her to help him find his puppy. She ran inside and told an adult about the man. When the adult appeared with Amari, the man disappeared.
Muhammed said she knew what to do because of her radKIDS training. She said she thinks the class has taught her to be a little braver.
“We teach these kids to yell, kick, scratch, bite if they are attacked, but we don’t want to scare them. We try to make it a fun game in class,” Morgan said after a radKIDS class one day last week. She stressed that the training is age-appropriate. “This training in no way resolves violence in our world, but it helps prevent the risk of being hurt.”
The expanding program was offered at Village Elementary School last spring, is now being taught to about 20 home-schoolers, and will be at Imagine MASTer Academy next semester. It emphasizes three points: No one has the right to hurt me; I do not have the right to hurt anyone, including myself, unless someone seriously tries to hurt me and then I have the right to stop them; If I do get hurt (in the past, present, or future) it is not my fault so I can tell.
The younger children in the program learn to replace fear, confusion and panic with confidence, personal-safety skills and self-esteem.
Ronnie Greenberg, president/CEO of the Women’s Bureau, said studies show that starting to educate children about personal safety in middle school is not early enough. They need to be taught in elementary school.
“Preventing abuse is much better than trying to fix the situation if they’ve been abused,” Greenberg said. So far this year, about 109 children have been seen at the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault Treatment Center. Of those, about 50 percent are younger than 6, she said.
Washington Principal Linda Martin also is a fan of the radKIDS program.
“It’s very important for kids to be equipped with these (safety) skills because of the world we live in today,” she said. “Criminals don’t look at race or where the victim lives as much as their age. They look for children as easy targets. The Alejandra (Gutierrez) case comes to mind. It happens close to home and it could happen anywhere, to anyone.”
Morgan added if students or their guardians do not want to participate in the program, they can opt out.
At the completion of radKIDS, the students have a graduation ceremony where they perform the defensive skills they have learned and receive T-shirts and bracelets.
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