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Escape Plan
Kid Escape! teaches kids to protect themselves

That "funny" feeling takes on different forms, whether it's a lump in the throat, a pit in your stomach or you suddenly become lightheaded. But regardless of how the feeling manifests itself, its message remains the same: something's not right.

According to John Hall, founder of Kid Escape!, most of us will freeze and give into that "funny" feeling when we're faced with a dangerous situation, such as an attack or abduction. But on Monday, Hall gave students at Lakeside Elementary School two simple words he hopes they'll remember if they ever get into a bad situation: "Keep moving."

Kid Escape! teaches kids to react to an attacker or kidnapper and not hesitate. The program, built around the premise that every second counts in a dangerous situation, aims at making the reaction an unconscious and automatic response. Hall was brought to Pittsburg by the Lakeside Elementary PTO as part of the program "Safe and Healthy Kids," which included two school presentations and an evening presentation for the public at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.

"If you have to think, it might be too late," Hall said of when a child or adult is faced with a possible attack or abduction.

People should never give up, Hall said, but the first few seconds of an attack are critical. Hall has been doing martial arts since he was 8 years old, but he said people didn't need martial arts training or athletic ability to fight off an attacker.

The moves Hall teaches require no coordination and are fairly simple. Hall gives students moves they can use anywhere, because every situation's different. The program's approach is also nonviolent, he said, and the moves are ones that don't escalate the violence of the attacker.

Kid Escape! deals with two kinds of perpetrators: attackers and abductors. Attackers aim to hurt or violate when they come into contact with the victim, Hall said, but abductors want to get the victim out of that first spot as quickly as they can without getting caught. Hall teaches kids, both, how to get away from perpetrators and how to delay them.

The longer a child can keep the abductor in the first location, Hall said, the more likely the abductor is to let the child go and walk away because the fear of being caught increases as the abduction takes longer.

Parents always tell children not to get abducted and to be careful. "But what tools do we give kids to not be abducted?" Hall asked.

Kid Escape! plants seeds in kids' heads of how to get away if they're ever approached and if they can't get away, they can at least delay the attacker. One of the simplest moves, "grip, dip and spin," similar to "stop, drop and roll," teaches the child to grab onto the attacker or abductor, dip to the ground and spin and hold onto the person.

Hall developed Kid Escape! from interviewing various people who'd survived attacks or abductions. Hall found that the majority of victims escaped by using simple, everyday actions that most people wouldn't think to use. Hall interviewed a young girl who'd awoke to find a man, armed with a knife, in her bedroom. The man held the girl at knifepoint and forced her to climb out of bed. As the girl got up and began to move forward, she tripped, fell down and was able to climb into a closet for safety.

Another woman Hall talked to was attacked and had grabbed onto a light pole to prevent the men from dragging her away. The woman said she wouldn't have thought to do that up until seeing her young daughter, the week before, throw a tantrum and grab onto the pole of a candy machine - it took several security guards to pry the crying girl off.

Rachel Patterson, Lakeside PTO president, said she was approached by some parents who became concerned after looking at a list of registered sex offenders on the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's Web site.

"As a parent, you think, 'What do you do with this information,'" Patterson said.

Patterson had been trying to come up with a way to address some of those concerns when she saw Hall being interviewed on TV. Patterson said she thought it looked like a proactive stance. It gives them a way to fight back, she said. "They're (kids) not walking scared."

Police officers who attended the program are now qualified to teach kids the Kid Escape! approach.

On the Web:

www.KidEscape.org

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net)April 4, 2006