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Stranger Danger
Teaching Your Children the Dangers of Strangers
By Carma Haley
"I make a point of not calling them 'strangers' because people who abduct can appear very nice and can even be someone sort of familiar," Sonnenberg says. "We've done drills on what to say and how to act, to run and scream and get attention from a trusted adult -- a parent, grandparent or teacher. I think that the best shot a parent has to keep their child from being abducted is by teaching them to be alert and to know what to do in case they are approached."
In the event that a child is believed to be missing, parents must act quickly.
"If a parent even has the slightest suspicion that anything has happened to their child they should notify the police immediately," Jones says. "There is absolutely no time to waste -- quick response is imperative. Retracing their child's steps is also extremely important to establish when and where something has occurred, but this should be happening simultaneously to contacting the police."
Often parents believe that things such as missing or abducted children only happen to other families -- not theirs. Yvette De Luca, a mother from Phoenix, Ariz., now knows differently.
"My youngest daughter got lost in our apartment complex one day," De Luca says. "A little boy, the same age as my daughter, talked her into hiding behind a bush outside of our building. I was looking for her because she had gone where I couldn't see her. When I called her she didn't answer. Finally I called the police. They responded very quickly and in full force."
Want to see more?
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- Run Yell Tell: Safe Choices, Safe Children book excerpt
