Empower your children! Increase their chances of escaping predators!
If you refuse to believe your child can be criminally abducted or if you believe your child's knowing about sexual predators would be too upsetting, you might as well be in cahoots with the sexual predators.
You may love your child, but you are not caring for your child well. Just remember: when the ostrich sticks its head in the ground, the dangers lurking nearby do not go away.
Know this: you do not rob your child of his/her innocence by teaching your child to recognize potentially predatory situations. But, you may prevent a sexual predator from stealing your child's innocence, maybe, your child's life if you teach your child how to escape from predators.
You are not teaching your child to be afraid if you teach him or her what to do to protect themselves. In fact, it makes a child more confident when he or she knows what to do if ever confronted. In giving a child some control over his or her fate, you empower the child and lessen feelings of helplessness.
Often parents ask me, “why can’t my child run around the neighborhood like I did when I was a kid.” I don’t know why it is no longer safe, if it ever really was safe. I just know there are 9 non-family abductions every hour in the United States and many more attempts which are unsuccessful. Sexual predators take kids when they ride their bikes on the streets, walk home alone from the school bus stop, play at the park.
Can you afford not to teach your child to say “I have to ask my mother or father first”
when neighbors ask for your child's help in unloading their car, when many kids have been enticed and raped and killed this way?
When I was growing up, some people thought the best thing a woman could do if she was attacked and raped was play along, even pretend she liked it, to avoid being hurt more. Now we know that early resistance is the best, perhaps the only, hope for escape. Let your children know that there are times they have a right to appear rude, to say “no” to an adult, to scratch, kick, fight as if their life depended on their getting away.
It's up to you to make sure your children know how to avoid the snares predators lay to entrap them. You can use the true stories and Jimmy Ryce's GEMs/Great Escape Maneuvers) to teach your children how to recognize and back out of potentially predatory situations.
Your child is his or her own last defense. Don’t leave your child defenseless if some day the real bogeyman--a sexual predator--comes a-calling.
Kids, YOU can learn how to escape from the clutches of predators!
I do not want any of you kids to be killed by a sexual predator as my 9-year-old son Jimmy was. I know Jimmy did not want to die, that he had a lot he still wanted to do.
I have to tell you the truth though: there will always be bad people roaming around looking for children to hurt. The really scary thing is that these demons look just like your parents and your parents’ friends. They can be someone you know, someone you thought you could trust--your uncle or your father’s boss.
But you are not helpless. You can learn to recognize who sexual predators are by what they ask you to do. You can learn how to get away from them.
Read as many of the stories in Jimmy Ryce's Great Escape Maneuvers/ GEMs program as you can. Go to the Escape section of this jimmyryce.org website. Click on your state to find out out kids in your state escaped from sexual predators. Ask yourself what acts by the adult could be those of a sexual predator and which of the Great Escape Maneuvers you think most helped the kid get away from the predator.
Insist your school hold predator drills. Act out the different stories in Jimmy Ryce's GEMs program. Take turns playing the kid. Let an adult play the predator (you do not want to play a bad person). The more you practice what to do, the more likely it is you will save yourself if a real predator ever tries to get you.
I had told Jimmy not to get in the car with anyone unless I told him that day it was OK for him to ride with that person. So, neighbors told me Jimmy had refused rides with them. I had told Jimmy to step back away from any car if a car stopped to ask directions, as it is, at best, inappropriate behavior for an adult to ask a child directions. After all, "it could be someone trying to lure you close enough to the car to grab you," I said.
I forgot to tell Jimmy what to do if someone pointed a gun at him and said “get in the car or I will kill you.” I believe Jimmy would be alive today, if he had known the safest thing to do is to turn and run despite the threat. Most predators are not going to risk getting caught by hurting you before they have their way with you. Sexual predators do not get their kicks by driving by and shooting you.
One little girl, in Marathon, Florida, is alive today, because she heard what happened to Jimmy and learned from me--Jimmy's mother-- what he should have done. She told me “two men tried to get me in a car last week, but I turned and ran, like Jimmy should have.”
The more of Jimmy Ryce's Great Escape Maneuvers/GEMs you know, the more likely it is you will remember one or more that will work to help you escape if a predator approaches you.
Let me know if you have an idea for another Great Escape Maneuver or which GEMs saved you!
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