October 2006 Newsletter

THOUGHTS ABOUT RECENT NATIONAL EVENTS

Last month brought some of the most deadly and disturbing assaults against children since the shootings at Columbine High School 7 years ago. I live in Boulder, Colorado less than an hour from the towns of Littleton (Columbine H.S.) and Bailey, having even recently driven by Platte Canyon High School days after the shooting. These recent events and others such as the Pennsylvania Amish School incident affected me, like most people deeply. They are extremely disturbing, especially to us parents, and I constantly ask myself, “Could these tragic events have been avoided or possbily averted with education that creates a greater sense of personal safety awareness?” I believe we can make a difference and that is why I am so passionate about my S.A.F.E programs.

From news reports, we learned that numerous students/faculty at Platte High School had noticed a man in a Jeep parked outside the school for several days, yet no one took any action to notify law enforcement to investigate! This small mountain town (pop. 9236), where most people either know each other or know of each other, thought that this type of thing “doesn’t happen in our town”. Who in their wildest imaginings would think a crazed individual would wreak such havoc and tragedy? Unfortunately, people now realize and understand that it DOES happen in small towns, even their own small town.

THREE IMPORTANT RULES

RULE # 1

The plain and simple truth is that crime and tragedies can and do happen everywhere, small town, large town, city, country, etc. Rule #1 in our S.A.F.E. program is that: “It can happen to you. That doesn’t mean it will, but it can”. Now does this mean that we live in constant fear? Absolutely not! But we cannot ignore the fact that we must be proactive and learn safety strategies to better protect ourselves in the case of any emergency situation and where our lives may be threatened.

RULE # 2

Rule #2 in our S.A.F.E. program is "The ‘Bad Guys’ can look like anybody else --- your neighbor, your boyfriend, your husband, the guy you work with, etc." So we must pay attention to the guys in our surroundings and not override our 'gut feeling' about someone simply because they don't look like a 'Bad Guy' to us. Remember that many women lost their lives to Ted Bundy simple because they didn't believe a good looking guy like him would harm them!

RULE # 3

The ‘Bad Guys’ are always planning their next attack and their next victim. It was theorized that the gunman in Bailey may have been collecting the names of young girls from sites like MySpace.com or chat rooms and then targeting them. This is typical predator behavior and it may or may not be true in this situation. The fact is that we know this individual, like all predators, was planning his next attack and looking for his next victims. This is why it is so critical that we create safety strategies, because the Bad Guys have their strategies to harm us. Rule #3 in our S.A.F.E. Program is, “We need to develop safety strategies for 'What If Scenarios', think about the things we don't want to think about, and plan for the things we don’t ever want to have happen, because they possibly could happen to us." We have fire drills in schools, spare tires and seat belts in our cars, life boats and life preservers on ships, etc. all designed to be used in the case of an emergency situation. What are your current personal safety strategies?

THE BAD GUYS ARE HERE TO STAY

With over 500,000+ registered sex offenders and hundreds of thousands literally under the radar who have never been caught and not in the system, we cannot live like ostriches with our heads in the sand and ignore this element in our society. The fact is that as much as we would like to believe differently, there is a very ‘evil’ element that exists in our society that targets our innocent children. A recent book by ex-FBI profiler, negotiator, author and child safety advocate, Clint Van Zandt, “Facing Down Evil”, talks about how he dealt with this evil element during his years in the FBI. We must as parents be very Pro-Active about helping to make our children as safe as possible by raising our safety awareness through continual learning and education. With increased safety awareness we begin to stack the odds more in our favor of being less likely to be chosen as a victim and able to better handle ourselves if we do find ourselves in a threatening situation. As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, every parent in the animal kingdom teaches their offspring about predators. Predators are cunning, slick, manipulative, and masterfully effective at getting their prey.

TV’s “Dateline” has an ongoing series called ‘To Catch A Predator,’ that has assisted http://www.pervertedjustice.com/ and various California sheriffs’ Departments to catch over 179 men. The common element for all these men of varying backgrounds, levels of education, ages, etc. is that they are very real; they exist and are constantly on the prowl actively seeking out new victims. In a perfect world, these individuals would not exist and in a near perfect world, we would be able to take them off the street and keep them away from our children. The reality is that that we live in an imperfect world and they ARE prevelant and very actively searching out new victims daily.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Our best defense, then, is to be proactive --- raise our safety awareness and be vigilant 24/7 about our safety. If just one person of the several who saw the stranger in the Jeep that was parked for days outside Platte High School in Bailey, Colorado had a call placed to the police to check out this guy out, this tragic killing might have avoided and 16-year-old Emily might be alive today. We will never know for sure, but the fact is that no preventative action was taken. We need to be constantly aware of our surroundings and be prepared to act in the defense of our personal safety at all times. We need to constantly monitor our surroundings and notice things out of place, out of the ordinary or people we get a bad feeling about (like a strange man and vehicle parked outside our school for several days!). Our intuition is constantly signaling us, but all too often we disregard these ‘gut feelings’ and fail to take action. We simply can no longer do this.

Now, out of all this recent tragedy what positive comes from the loss of precious young lives? Well in Bailey, they started a foundation called: “I Love You Guys”, the last text message from Emily to her parents and adopted a program called: Do A Random Act of Kindness for Emily. People are embracing the loss of this 16-year-old girl and seeing what positive changes they can make on her behalf. In her death, she will touch so many people and in so many positive ways. From the Amish Community, we learn that these people not only embrace forgiveness, but live it with the kind actions they demonstrated to the crazed man’s family who too were victims. Even our president called together a committee to see what we need to do to make our schools safer.

We cannot get the ‘Bad Guys’ off the street as easily as we can learn how to live more safely. We need to teach our children how to be empowered in a world that could easily teach them only to be fear-based. The Heart of our Kidz Program and our ‘Safe Kidz Kit’ is to help make our children as predator free as possible, with safety skills and strategies to protect them when there are no ‘Safe Adults’ around. Through extensive research, we created a comprehensive program with skill sets, games and even internet safety software to make our children as safe as possible. All of our trainers and staff at KSEG are passionate in helping to protect our children and empower them with the very best non-fear-based safety skill sets available. Help us to help you and let us come and do a live, interactive program. At the very least, consider purchasing a ‘Safe Kidz Kits’ online for each of your children and begin teaching your children how to live safer.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts this month on how these recent events affected me.

A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT HALLOWEEN

Halloween is here again! I recommend that you visit our October 2005 Newsletter in the archives (visit http://www.kseg.org/Newsletter/2005/10/october-2005-newsletter.html) for tips on how to have a fun and SAFE Halloween this year. Happy Halloween from everyone at KSEG.

Contact us to book a KSEG Program near you (which can be given as a fundraiser too!) and/or be sure to purchase a ‘Safe Kidz Kit’ from our product page for your child/ren.

Have a great school year and remember to email me, Mark Spencer (mark@kseg.org) with any questions, ideas or safety stories you would like to share. We would love to share safety testimonials each month with all our subscribers.

Mark Spencer, M.A., S.A.F.E.

© Copyright 2006 S.A.F.E. All rights reserved.