This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Superior Child Safety - Stranger Danger and other Safety Strategies

During our TIGER group class on Saturday August 3rd, the topic of strangers or other adults known to them offering children gifts, rides, or asking them to enter a vehicle or residence was discussed. A poster card with an illustration was used to help the students understand these dangerous situations and what rules they should follow to help keep themselves safe. 

The following strategies and concepts were reviewed:

1. Refusing candy, money or other gifts from strangers or invitations from strangers to see their pets.

2. Staying away from the curb if someone in a car stops to talk or ask them questions. If the person keeps driving slowly along side the curb, turn around and go the other way making it more difficult for the vehicle to continue to follow them. Then go quickly to the nearest  safe place - home, school, store or neighbor’s house.

3. Try to remember all, if not some of the license plate, as well as the color of the car, description of occupants and anything else that may help on a Police Report

4. A stranger is any person you don’t know. They can be old, young, nice, scary looking, be smiling and happy, angry looking, they can even look like a loved relative. Students must understand a STRANGER can look like anyone. Young children believe strangers will look dangerous (from the saying stranger danger) and that nice people aren’t strangers (because they don’t appear "dangerous").

5. Children must know that they can never leave with, take a ride, enter a house or go anywhere with any friendly adult person known to them without permission from their parent. 

6. According to Parents For Megan’s Law - 93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker, 34.2% of attackers were family members and 58.7% were acquaintances and only 7% of the perpetrators were strangers to the victim.

Thoughts, comments or questions ?

Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Regards Sensei Gregg Stevenson

 www.superiorkenpo.com

Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?