radKIDS: Teaching children to fight back

Here in Saratoga Springs the potential for a child to be abused, neglected or abducted is just as possible as it is in any other part of the country and that is why a national self-defense program that teaches children how to protect themselves from would-be abductors and abusers could soon be instructing area kids how to fend off violent attackers.

The program is called "radKIDS" and is designed to teach children to "resist aggression defensively." It was founded in 1998 by Stephen Daley, who was born in Saratoga Springs, and has since trained more than 150,000 children nationwide. Of the children trained, the program has saved 53 kids from abduction and another 2,000 have escaped sexual assault, according to Daley.

"We are known as the program to stop abduction, but we also teach the kids school safety and home safety," Daley said. "It is by far one of the most comprehensive education models in child safety."

Doug and Mary Lyall of Ballston Spa, along with Daley are currently trying to get the program instituted in Saratoga Springs. The couple has been involved in helping the parents of missing children since their daughter, Suzanne, disappeared in 1998 while attending the University at Albany. To this day, her case remains unsolved.

Last month, they presented radKIDS to City Council members, who seemed interested in helping them get the program started. Commissioner of Public Safety Ron Kim said the city already had a DARE program, but could potentially use it to help launch radKIDS in the city.

"We are trying to get it into New York State and we thought if we could get it into Saratoga Springs then other towns in the area would also become interested in it," Mary Lyall said.

Lyall said since then their efforts have taken a step back, but now that the holidays are over they hope things will start moving forward again. The cost to start the program is around $10,000, which mostly would cover the equipment needed to train the children. They are currently looking into receiving a grant to help get it off the ground.

While the program teaches children how to defend themselves against potential attackers, it is also about teaching kids how to protect themselves from harm through three life skills built on safety. First, every kid learns no one has the right to hurt them, second, they don't have the right to hurt anyone else unless someone is trying to hurt them and last, if anyone tries to hurt them it is not their fault so they have the right to tell an adult.

"If you put number one and three together you really have the secret to the program because it allows us to build a program where a child will never be a victim in their life," Daley said. "Psychologically, there is quite a bit behind it; people think it just teaches them how to get away, but what we really teach is resiliency."

Daley said it is a whole different concept from how parents have been told to protect their children in the past because it teaches them the best way to protect them is to teach them how to protect themselves and to be there for them.

"It empowers them to live better in their world and the world that is around them," Daley said. "We are not teaching them how we taught kids in the 60s. We teach them for the world they live in the 21st century."

Judy Curran, who runs a school to train radKIDS instructors at Western New England College and is also the program's manager of special projects, said she learned about radKIDS from teaching women's defense classes where she was inspired after she heard many of the women's stories of being assaulted. After that she decided it was time to teach people how to protect themselves at a younger age to help avoid such violent assaults from childhood to adulthood.

"It is activity-based learning and teaches them more than just what they have to do, but how to actually respond instinctively if they are attacked," she said.

Lyall, whose granddaughter is a radKIDS graduate, said the program is taught in two-hour sessions over the course of four weeks. It is aimed at educating kids from kindergarten to age 12 and then allows the children to become instructors once they have reached their teens.

"It really gives a child empowerment by teaching them things that their parents have told them not to do like kick and scream," Lyall said. "They are actually teaching them how to do this if someone tries to attack them rather than just telling them."

Currently there are 3,000 instructors in 45 states. In New York there are approximately 20 trained instructors, including a group at the University at Albany. However, their program was recently put in jeopardy due to Gov. David Paterson's budget cuts.

Daley said he hopes to bring the program into the school districts and community in Saratoga Springs so that every child gets access to radKIDS and that it in turn changes how parents and children look at how to protect themselves.

"There is no reason for it not to be brought in it's just how can we get it started," Daley said
To learn more about radKIDS and how to get involved, visit: www.radkids.org.