Back to School Safely

Many of you might not know I have been a police officer for over 17 years.  I am also the owner of Victory Martial Arts in Norman, OK.  That experience has been valuable in seeing trends in attempted child abductions.  At Victory Martial Arts we teach these valuable lessons and much much more.

So, we are going to focus on keeping our children safe from creeps (bad guys) It is very common to see an increase in attempted child abductions around this time of year.  Predators will gravitate toward areas where children gather.  Please talk to your children about these dangers.  I recommend that you role play with your children.  Try to keep it light, as we do not want to scare the kids.  We want to educate them to dangerous situations.  So, they can avoid them.

Here are a few tips:

1 Talk to them about different lures bad guys use, like candy and lost dogs.  It is not important to know them all.  The kids just need to know if stranger approaches asking for help to run.

2. Let then know that it is not appropriate for any adult to ask a child for help.

3. Keep your eye on routes that kids walk to or from schools.

4. If your child rides the bus develop a rotation of parents to take turns sitting at the bus stop.  Many times bad guys will watch an area for days to find he target.  If you are there he will move on.

5. God gave you the gift of fear (Intuition).  Listen to that gut feeling and act.  If you see something out of the ordinary call police immediately.  It is better to call and not need that need and not call.

6. Do not let your children walk to school alone.  Make sure they are in groups.

7. When walking to school, let them know to stay away from the road.  They should walk on the sidewalk as far away from the road as possible.

8. If your child sees the same car passing slowly several times, they need to get farther from the road and pick up the pace.  Run if needed.

9. If your child is walking to school, check the route for people you may know.  Look for safe houses along the way.  Talk to the people that live at those houses and see if your child can use that house for a safe house if they FEEL like they are in danger.  If your child needs to run they can run to the closest safe house.

10. If your child has to run it is better to go to a safe house than your home if no one is home.

If you have any questions or I can help in anyway, please let me know

 Steve Swinford

www.steveswinford.com