Norcross safety workshop teaches kids to say 'No'

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Little Ben McCarty eyed the smiling stranger standing in front of him.

“Would you help me find my puppy?” the man asked kindly as he grabbed the fourth-grader tightly by the hand during an exercise at Greater Atlanta Christian School.

But Ben wasn’t falling for it. Before the stranger could scoop the boy up and whisk him away from his safety zone, the grown-up was sent crashing to the floor.

“No! Stay back!” Ben hollered. Then he poked his mock abductor in the eyes, kneed him in the groin and ran to call 911.

The scene was part of a child empowerment workshop for kids age 4 and older, sponsored by Keep Georgia Safe. In it, a trainer with the national child safety group radKids — wearing a heavily padded suit and a hockey mask — taught summer camp students to fend off attackers or bullies long enough to run and get help. Police officers also assisted.

Graham McCarty, Ben’s dad, was impressed with his son’s moves. “That was all right, buddy!” he said.

radKids, which has 3,000 trainers in 44 states, reports that its methods have saved at least 60 children from being abducteds.

“How many parents have said, ‘Don’t talk to strangers,’ and then they follow it up with, ‘Always be polite.’ That’s a big problem,” said Stephen Daley, executive director of radKids. “They give virtually any adult in their child’s life the ability to control them. Children need to understand that it is not their job to help a grown up that they do not know. Being polite is saying no and going to get another grown up to help them.”

Daley says radKids taps into the survival instincts of children by teaching them it’s OK to defend themselves against attackers until they can escape.

Neely Musgrave of Duluth explained why she brought four kids to the class: “We as parents always want to be there to protect our kids, but we can’t. They are going to be alone sometimes.”

National studies show that 53 percent of children who resist abductions get away and if a child resists, yells and runs, 90 percent get away safely, Daley said.

Duluth attorney Gary Martin Hays, who launched Keep Georgia Safe last year after three metro Atlanta women were abducted and murdered, said he would like to see more children trained about what to do. “If someone grabs you, you have a right to say no and mean it.”

radKids teaches children

● No one has the right to hurt them

● They don’t have the right to hurt anyone unless an attacker is trying to hurt them. Then, they can stop the attacker.

● If anyone tries to hurt them, it is not their fault so they can tell an adult they know.

For more information or to bring radKids to your school, visit www.keepgeorgiasafe.org and http://radKids.org.