I found a some stories about kid abduction attempts and how they got away. The common thread (as I suspected) was the girls and boys did not calmly go along with the abductors! They ran, fought back and escaped with their wits! I have long been an advocate for teaching children the basics on how to avoid bad situations and what to do if they have to fight back.  

I will start out with a video from Erin Weed of GirlsFightBack.org. Erin became an advocate for women after her friend was killed. I think this will set the right tone for this serious topic. I will then talk about the news story’s I found and comment on each. I will follow up with some good tips for children in similar situations so you can hopefully give your children some tips! Here is an Fox News interview with Erin Weed.

Erin’s tips were enlightening, (1) trust your intuition, (2) prevention, and (3) learn to fight! I think many people have a had time with trusting their intuition because they don’t want to admit something bad might be happening. The ostrich syndrome (you now – burying your head in the sand), is not a wise defense. It might work sometimes but the way things really work are; you will be confronted with adversity when you are not ready. Avoiding bad areas of town, going out alone at night walking, and other common sense tips should keep you from being a good victim (prevention). I have mostly focused on kids-women-men learning to fight!

In this story a guy in a truck tried talk to a girl and then grabbed her here. The girl was able to get away! This is lucky because as I have reported before in, “Womens Self-Defense” if you go with the abductor, your chances of survival diminish significantly!. The only thing I see room for improvement here is the girl should not have talked to the stranger at all. Here dad had already spoken to her about strangers but our society expects people to answer when someone speaks. Kids need to be exempt from this – told by their parents to ignore strangers and run if they (the stranger) gets close or demanding. This brave girl has learned this lesson as WAS able to get away!

Hereis a story about a boy helping his mother deliver newspapers, getting attacked! This boy was in an already dangerous situation being out in the early morning. The bad guy had probably been watching or was an opportunist. Whatever the case, he grabbed the boy but could not hang on after the boy stomped his feet! The boy was able to get away. I know in this day and age, trying to make an honest buck and teaching the kids responsibility is important. One should always be watchful of the kids as this story points out, there are bad people out there. Bravo to to the boy’s quick wit.

In another attack, a girl playing hide and seek was snatched and had to fight and scream her way out! She was able to get away. Wow… you would think a kid could play outside safely but I think that we cannot protect our kids from everything. I am glad the girl knew how to fight back and scream. Here is a quick video from the Bakersfield Police about another kidnapping attempt where the whole community aided in getting the four-year-old girl back, as well as catching the crook!

I found this story about a 13 year-old boy that was snatched from a bus stop. Unlike the other stories I have mentioned today, this boy was not able to get away! He was taken to a remote spot, bound and gagged and left. He was able to break-free with the aid of a safety pin. After reviewing this story I noted that the guy took him at gun point. What do I think the kid should have done? I think he should have ran because he would have almost certainly been killed and left for dead in most cases. I found this post in Self Defense & Violence Prevention Blog, by Scott Hughes, entitled, “Run Away From Armed Preditors” that seems to support my position because most people under pressure will miss their shot and it they do hit their target, 9 of 10 are survivable. Here is another approach that a kid can take if grabbed in this video.

When I first saw a video of this “Kid Escape” methods I was skeptical. I think as something to try if nothing else is working, why not. What I like about it is the simplicity of movement, teaching grip, dip, and spin to kids should be relatively straight forward. What I don’t like about it is the same women have to face in rape attacks, namely getting punched hard if they cause a problem to the attacker. Kids and Women should be focusing on an attack to help them get away. If it takes too long or is ineffective, the attacker will usually try and control the victim by brute force! So what I am saying is take the kid escape advice with a grain of salt.

To sum up this post, I would like to echo Erin Weed’s advice of (1) Intuition, (2) prevention, and (3) fight back! Kid, Men and Women can all protect themselves if they use common sense, trust their instincts, learn self-defense, and optimally carry a legal self-defense weapon. While I did not go into weapons in the post there are plenty of everyday items that can be used in a pinch. It warms my heart to read stories of boys and girls getting away from predators. I hope that parents will heed some of this advice and minimally talk to their kids about strangers and take them (the kids) to some self-defense courses!