radKIDS instructor and Cullman Police Department DARE Officer Cindy Rohrscheib demonstrates the self-defense stance./ Heather Mann
CULLMAN – Something special is going down at the Cullman Civic Center this week. The Cullman Police Department and Cullman Parks and Recreation are hosting the popular radKIDS Summer Safety Camp. The radKIDS Personal Empowerment Safety Education program teaches kids how to assess a situation for danger and act accordingly.
The course, the seventh annual here in Cullman, is led by certified radKIDS instructor and CPD DARE Officer Cindy Rohrscheib. Classes, which are for kids ages 5-11, meet from 9-11 a.m. each day at a cost of $7 per child, and preregistration is encouraged, since space is limited. If space is available, kids will be allowed to join up until June 28, the third day of the class. Registration forms are available at the CP&R front desk at the Civic Center.
Monday morning’s program was all about how to call 911 and talk to dispatch. Rohrscheib told the kids that the most common mistake people make in an emergency is panicking, crying or screaming when they call, which makes it difficult for dispatch to understand them and get them the help they need. To help the children prepare for this, Rohrscheib gave each child an emergency scenario, had them run to a designated safety zone, and had them describe the emergency to her "dispatchers" (her assistant instructors).
Several of the children did not know their home addresses, so she promised a prize for each child who would learn it when they got home and recite it during Tuesday's class. She put extra emphasis on memorizing their addresses because sometimes emergencies happen where a child is the only one available to call 911, so it's very important for them to know where to send the emergency responders.
Another big lesson was on personal space. Rohrscheib showed the kids where her "bubble" of personal space was and asked all the kids to show their own bubbles. She repeatedly told them that nobody has the right to invade their bubbles without permission, but she also explained that the reverse is true: the kids should not invade other people's space without permission either.
With boundaries established, Rohrscheib’s final lesson was bit of self-defense. She demonstrated the standard defense position (feet apart, knees slightly bent, weight balanced, both hands up) and taught them to say, "Step away! You're not my parent!" in order to draw attention in case a stranger ever tries to invade their space.
When the kids learned the stance, she outlined some of the basic areas to aim for when defending oneself, then brought out the training dummy ("Bad Boy Bob") to show the children a move called peppering. Each of the children got a chance to pepper (strike with the fingertips) Bob in the eyes before running to safety.
While the class enjoyed some refreshments, Rohrscheib went over some of the things the class will be doing during the rest of the week, including fire safety, gun safety, how to approach a dog and what to do if the dog is angry, Internet safety and what is safe to post, and how to identify and escape a predator. She said she will go over the password rule, an anti-abduction method used by children to know who is safe to leave with, and when someone is touching them in a bad way. While it's important to remember that any touching that makes someone uncomfortable is bad, Rohrscheib placed extra emphasis on areas that a bathing suit would typically cover.
Her assistant instructors were both graduates of the radKIDS program, and both of them shared that the knowledge they received gave them a lot of confidence in themselves. Fortunately, neither of them have needed to use their training, but they felt that the programs taught them things that they could use to great advantage.
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