Children at Franklin Elementary School got on a mat on the gymnasium floor Thursday and learned how to disable an adult. Like children in many communities, they're taught not to talk to strangers, but Thursday's lesson went beyond discussion.

"Children learn best with a hands-on approach," said Franklin school principal Rhonda Denham.

Laurie Hill and Charlie Wilson, both of Southeast Missouri Hospital, gave a program called Kid Escape, a method developed by John Hall, a martial arts expert from Cincinnati who developed a self-defense program at college after a fellow student was attacked near her dormitory. He later became a safety expert and is marketing Kid Escape.

Wilson, who works in the hospital's security department, has a son at Franklin. He recalled watching news accounts in January about 11-year-old Carlie Brucia of Sarasota, Fla., who was abducted while walking home from a friend's house and killed. Her abduction was caught on videotape by a security camera outside a car wash.

Wilson said he remembers with horror where Carlie's abductor walked up to her, took her by the arm and led her away with no resistance.

"I kept saying, 'Yell, scream, do something,'" Wilson said. "He just walked off with her. I wanted to make sure as many kids as I knew had this program so it would not happen to them."

Hall gave a demonstration to the Cape Girardeau Middle School two years ago. Wilson learned the method, taught it to his son and to a Boy Scout troop he leads. Thursday he was on a mat in the gym coaching youngsters while Hill, a member of the hospital's Generations program, explained to the children the reasoning behind the moves.

'It's not being rude'

Children are taught not to be rude to adults, but Hill taught them that in the case of a stranger who makes them feel threatened, not to worry about being rude.

"It's not being rude, it's protecting yourself," she told the children.

The first thing they should try to do, she said, is keep a distance from a stranger who approaches them. If that doesn't work, run and yell for help.

"If you can run, by all means I want you to run," she said.

But if an adult they don't know gets within arm's reach and the children sense danger, then, she said, "I want you to make noise."

Hill told the children that if they yell, "Help me! This is not my mother. This is not my father," other adults will notice that more than if they just scream.

In addition to calling unwanted attention to a potential abductor, Hill taught the children that if an adult actually grabs them, they should drop to the floor "like a limp noodle," grab a leg with their arms, entwine their legs around the adult's other leg, and hang on, all the while calling for help.

Parent volunteers, Wilson and some teachers pretended to be strangers so the children could practice what they had just learned and see how they could immobilize an adult. Later they learned that once the adult lets go, to stay on their backs, kicking at the attacker with their feet until there is enough distance between them for the youngsters to run.

"This person is thinking 'I don't have time for this. Somebody is going to catch me. I need to get out of here,'" Hill said.

"The idea is to make the kids aware what they can actually do to try to stop that," Hill said during a break between sessions. "I do a lot of talking about strangers. They know those things. This gives them something that is effective."

Kid Escape is presented in a way that the children realize they need to know it, yet it doesn't frighten them. Then again, Dunham said, maybe a little fear is not a bad thing.

"We don't want them to be afraid, but we want them to know if something does happen how they should approach this," Dunham said.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160