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Keeping your child safe: the book every parent must read
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“While my parents were looking at some books [at the New York Public Library], I decided to walk around and explore on my own. As I approached the main entrance, I saw a man at the door motioning to me. The librarian at the…desk saw me and told me not to go over there. I didn’t listen and started to slowly move closer to the man. I still remember him waving his hand for me to come closer and pointing to something that he wanted to show me…,” writes Janet Goliger, remembering a time when she was 5-years old, for the Preface of her book “I Need to be Safe: I’m Worth It!” Fortunately, this story had a happy ending, but there are too many scenarios like this that do not.That is why the award-winning P.E. teacher and black-belt karate instructor Goliger has taken up the mission of educating parents and their children on how to protect themselves against predators. She developed her C.L.A.S.S., or Children Learning Awareness, Safety and Self-Defense, program in 1999 and implemented it into her own school curriculum. But she felt that wasn’t enough.
“Parents kept coming up to me and asking me for notes or pictures to take home. I had never intended to write a book, but I felt I owed it to all of the families out there to provide the same kind of information I was teaching in my own classes,” Goliger says. Because all of the publishing houses she contacted were unresponsive, she self-published “I Need to be Safe” at her own expense in 2006.
“Children need to learn the right tools, so they never enter that car or never grab that hand, and know how to get away before they are nabbed,” she stresses. The book teaches kids proactive techniques that not only help them become aware of potential danger but how to remember license plates, car descriptions and physical characteristics of suspicious strangers.
The book offers interactive activities for the family that includes drills and code word ideas that can keep a child safe. “The things I teach in the book are supposed to be informative but also fun for the kids. Who else does a child trust more than a parent, and who better to practice these techniques with in a safe and nurturing environment?
Unfortunately, there is always the possibility that a child will be grabbed. The book has photos depicting step-by-step self-defense techniques that will help a child escape, even from an adult much larger than him or herself. “I’m not saying that a small child can knock down an adult, but what I hope to illustrate is that a kid can learn the correct maneuvers or make enough noise that will enable him or her to escape. What I always say to my students is, ‘yell as loud and and as powerfully as you can. Let people around you know that you are in danger.’ This so important,” she says.
“I Need to be Safe: I’m Worth It!” can be purchased at all major online booksellers and through Goliger’s website. If you would like to see the C.L.A.S.S. program instituted into your school curriculum, Goliger urges you to contact her directly.
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