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Schools target safety concern By BRIAN BLACKLEYStranger safety tips have already begun to travel home with Dawson County elementary school students and school and law enforcement officials are hopeful they will be observed in order to keep kids safe. “Our mission in this - like the school’s - is to keep our kids safe,” said Sgt. Tony Wooten, public information officer for the Dawson County Sheriff’s Department. Monday, letters went home with Robinson Elementary School students detailing the do’s and don’ts of safety for the students. Wooten said letters would be going home with students at Kilough Elementary School and Black’s Mill Elementary School Tuesday or Wednesday. “We haven’t have any encounters that have gone badly,” Wooten said. “But there was an incident at a subdivision off Grizzle Road in the Georgia 400 area where a stranger in a pickup allegedly tried to lure some kids over to his vehicle. They didn’t go and the truck - coated with a silver primer and with a man inside - drove away. Those kids were smart and we want to make sure all students understand how to react in a way to keep them safe.” The incident was reported to authorities, but no arrests have been made. Still, Wooten said, it brought home the point that no one is guaranteed that they are safe even in their own neighborhoods. “Danger is everywhere and we all like to think, ‘that won’t happen here.’ We hope it won’t, but we’re not taking any chances,” he said. The letter from the Dawson County School System details safety tips to avoid confrontation, but Wooten said there are other options, too. Through a program called r.a.d.kids, students are taught “resisting aggressively and defensively.” The program is being taught by Wooten to students in the area and Wooten is eager to see all students go through the program. “We want the students to not only know how to avoid bad situations, but how to react to them as well,” he said. “This program, nationally, has been credited with helping 24 potential victims fight off attackers. And there is no way to measure how may thousands may have been saved by avoiding situations that didn’t look safe.” The r.a.d.kids program has the endorsements of such child abduction heavyweights as Mark Klaas and John Walsh, two men who have been personally devastated by personal tragedy involving their own children. Wooten said the program has also helped children come forward with stories of abuse that may have never been heard without learning how to identify it and fight against it. “I’d love to see all kids taught these techniques,” he said. “This is a program that has saved lives and could be the difference between life and death. We look back at the (1997 abduction and murder in Forsyth and Dawson counties) of Levi Frady and we can’t help but ask what would have happened if he had gone through the program. It’s a terrible tragedy and maybe it was completely unavoidable. But if it was... We have to be active in doing all we can to help keep kids safe. We have to pay attention to things like that and work to keep those sorts of horrible things from ever happening again.” Wooten also said learning to avoid strangers is only one part of keeping kids safe. “Many kids are abducted by neighbors and family members and they need to learn how to fight back if that happens,” he said. Included in the note to parents sent home by the schools: Never accept a ride from someone you don’t know well. Never talk to strangers. Stay away from the curb or edge of the roadway. If grabbed or confronted, fight back and scream. Seek to make enough noise to get help. Always try to remember what a stranger looks like if he or she approaches you. Take note of his or her car and clothing and try to learn the tag number. Make up a code word to use with your parents in case of an emergency. Always go to the park or playground with a friend. Make sure your parents know where you are going before going to a friend’s house. Additional information and knowledge about how to fight back can be learned through the r.a.d.kids program. For information about the next class or to sign up, contact Tony Wooten at 344-3535. For more information about r.a.d.kids, visit www.radkids.org. | 
