CHILD ABDUCTIONS Kids learn escape techniques

'Be smart, not scared' is the program's theme.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HARTFORD -- Don Harvey teaches child abduction prevention because he wants to keep young people from ending up in coffins at the funeral homes where he works.
"I am the last person who wants to pick up a child who has been abducted. In the end, that's generally what the outcome is," said Harvey, community outreach coordinator at the Wood-Kortright Funeral Homes in Ravenna and Kent.
Harvey was here Thursday evening to present his Escape School program to an audience of more than 50 people, including children from pre-schoolers to teenagers and their parents, at Hartford Elementary School.
Free program
The funeral home offers the one-hour free program to school, church and community groups. To reinforce the program's message in the home, children who attend receive free Escape School coloring books, and related videotapes sell for $5.
The school's theme is "Be smart, not scared." It teaches children they can distinguish between good and bad strangers, not by their appearance or the color of their clothes, but by their actions.
During the session, Harvey begins by asking children questions about what they would do in various threatening situations and complimenting them on their insightful answers. He shows an abduction prevention video, and demonstrates what he calls the "windmill and Velcro" techniques.
By using the windmill technique, an abductee, who has been grabbed by the wrist, can break an abductor's grip by rotating his or her arm in the direction the abductor's thumb is facing.
Using the Velcro technique, a child in distress gets another adult's attention by grabbing him or her, asking for help and not letting go.
Harvey has taught the program in person to audiences totaling more than 27,000 children throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania. Nationally, funeral homes have taught the program to more than 3.5 million people since 1996. Harvey credits the program with saving about 10 children and one adult from abduction.
Attendees
Diane McDowell of Orangeville traveled 10 miles with her three sons, Jason, 13, Gary, 9, and Tyler, 5, to attend Thursday's session.
"I wanted them to learn what to do if they would happen to be abducted, how to get away, where to go for protection," she said of her children.
Gary said he wanted "to learn how to stay safe" and "not to get kidnapped." His advice to other youngsters: "Listen to your parents, and stay near them."
Jason said he wanted "to learn about abduction, to know what to do in case that ever happens" to him or someone else he might be able to help.
"It's the parents who need to hear it also," said Robin Clower Timko, treasurer of Hartford Elementary School's Parent-Teacher Organization, explaining why the program was offered in the evening instead of during school hours.
What sparked program
She invited Harvey to conduct the program after two Cub Scouts became separated from the group for about 45 minutes during a field trip to a Pittsburgh museum, causing her and other chaperones much anxiety a month ago.
More information about the program is available at www.escapeschool.com.