Keeping your child safe: award-winning teacher writes book every parent must read
.jpg)
The book
“I Need to Be Safe: I’m Worth It!” by Janet Goliger should be required reading for all parents of young children. Unlike those fear-inducing “beware of strangers” lectures our parents gave us as kids, this is a straight, no nonsense guide to child safety that involves the entire family. “I don’t believe that any child should be a victim,” says Goliger, an award-winning P.E. teacher from Glendale.
Goliger, who holds several black belt titles in karate, began her quest to keep kids safe in the mid-1990’s. “I came home one afternoon, switched on the television, and there was another report about a child abduction. It literally made me sick to my stomach to think that our kids don’t know how to defend themselves and to keep themselves safe from predators,” she remembers. But she was also well aware of the high cost and time constraints of private self-defense classes.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m a physical education teacher. Why don’t I create a program that I can implement into my own curriculum,” she says. It took nearly 2 ½ years for her to perfect C.L.A.S.S., an acronym which stands for Children Learning Awareness, Safety and Self-Defense
The first year she initiated the program, her teachings were put to the test. “One of my students was walking with a friend when they noticed they were being followed by a van. They managed to run to a safe house, call the police and physically describe the van, even giving a partial license plate number. The police picked up the suspects 2 hours later on the 210 freeway,” she recalls. “The next day, my student ran up to me, gave me a hug and said, ‘It happened just the way you said it would, Ms. Goliger.’ You can’t imagine the emotion I felt. It was at that point I knew that I had to get this program out to everyone.”
She has created an easy-to-follow curriculum and DVD for all teachers to follow. It meets with the Department of Education standards and is actually recommended. She now travels throughout California petitioning school districts to enact it.
She took her mission one step further by writing a book for parents and their kids. “I need to be safe: I’m Worth It,” which can be purchased through the major online booksellers as well as at Goliger’s own website, informs and instructs families on the best and most effective proactive techniques.
In our next installment, we will delve more deeply into Goliger’s book. In the meantime, if you would like to see this program instituted at your school, contact
Goliger through her website. She welcomes all concerned parents and citizens.