The man approached Justin Dracup and grabbed the 6-year-old, attempting to abduct him. The youngster began to flail his arms, screaming as he punched the bad guy in the face several times before delivering a sharp kick to his groin.
Justin, a Columbus resident, then ran to a telephone, dialed 911 and patiently gave his address to let the operator know: "There was a person trying to catch me. There was a person trying to take me away."
He then answered Muscogee County Sheriff's Capt. Ricky Kelly's knock at the door. Finally, the youngster was in safe hands.
With his quick-thinking action, Justin had passed the test and become a graduate of the "radKIDS" program. Rad -- which stands for "resist aggression defensively" -- is a program started in 1998 to give children ages 5 through 12 potentially life-saving skills that might protect them from violence and harm.
"I loved that you could learn how to self defense yourself so you wouldn't get hurt by strangers or tooken away," Justin said Saturday after receiving a certificate of completion from Lt. Bill Hough, an instructor from the Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department in Dadeville, Ala.
RadKIDS is up and running in more than 40 states, but no Georgia communities are involved in the program. It covers everything from escaping a dangerous stranger who may be intent on assaulting or killing children to letting them know how to call 911 to report an emergency or flee a home during a fire.
The first class of 24 children in Columbus, held at Calvary Baptist Church on Old Moon Road, involved 10 hours of instruction from Hough over five sessions.
"The kids are now more focused, more aggressive and not as intimidated as when they first came in," Hough said during graduation.
Kelly and volunteers such as Lori Wilkens and Ricky Dupree hope to spread the power of radKIDS throughout the Muscogee County School District.
Spreading program?
That's going to take money, however, with Kelly estimating initial costs for purchasing equipment and training 15 volunteers at about $15,000. Equipment includes protective headgear, gloves and knee pads for the youngsters and instructors, as well as a faux 911 machine. Kelly said the program could be maintained for between $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
"We're going to start with going to the churches, going to the PTAs to see if they want us to do these kind of things," he said. "We had to see if this is going to be worthwhile. This is kind of a test group."
Kelly said there is no doubt in his mind that radKIDS will help keep local children safe. Justin's mother, Kathy Dracup, agrees.
"We tell them since they're tiny never to hit anybody, not an adult, not a child. And they were shy to hit at first," she said. "But this suddenly gave them the confidence so that if it is a stranger and they are in danger to actually physically hit and kick them as hard as they can, and run and call 911 until the police arrive."
Changing mind-set
As she watched her daughter, Ellie, 5, suit up for a confrontation with the bad guy Saturday, Billie Ann Gordon, was a bit nervous.
"I'm afraid Ellie is not going to be very rough, because she's not at all aggressive," Gordon commented to another parent.
But the youngster came out swinging and kicking before using her real weapon -- her elbows -- then running away to seek help on the telephone. Later, Ellie was all smiles.
"This helps her to learn her address and phone number," Gordon said. "We have a password that only the family knows. If I sent somebody to pick her up they would know the password."
The radKIDS program also involves taking fingerprints and current photographs of children for use in finding them should they be abducted.
The program's Web site, www.radkids.org, states 35,000 children have been trained nationwide to date. It said 22 children have used their skills to get away from someone trying to snatch them.
