1. REVERSE THE EXPECTATION OF THE ATTACKER: It is crucial to understand one or two key principles of the script here:

   • The sexual predator who wishes to abduct a child dearly does not wish to get caught. He cannot stop himself from pursuing child victims, but he understands that he cannot allow himself to get caught. This requires him to painstakingly stalk his child prey until he selects an ideal victim. When he attacks, however, he knows that he must spend a minimal amount of time in the initial crime scene! His plans include snatching the child with blinding speed after lulling the boy or girl into a false sense of security (I am a friend of your family; using the child’s first name; claiming that the mother is injured and sent him, the predator, to pick the child up and bring him or her home, etc.).
   • In an ideal situation, the child recognizes the stranger for what he is and leaves the area quickly. This is of course contingent on the child being aware of his or her environment, escape routes, etc.
   • If approached by the “Bad Guy,” the child is taught to understand that this is a Totally Uncool Person, or, perhaps a Person acting like he is a Totally Un-Cool Person, which is the same thing. The child must leave the area or at least attempt to leave. If grabbed, the child should use the Drop-Lock-and Roll Escape Technique described below, or, at the very least yell out “Help! This Is Not My Daddy (or Mommy)!” as often as possible.
2. DELAY THE PREDATOR: DROP, LOCK AND ROLL.
   This ingenious technique was designed by John Hall, the founder of Kid Escape Systems and is ideal for causing the delay that the predator/abductor wants dearly to avoid. The child is taught that when grabbed to first latch on to the Bad Guy and then to drop his or her head toward the attacker’s feet. Before the Bad Guy can get a good grasp (think of it: Have you ever tried to hold onto a small dog or cat when it decided to wiggle, rock and roll and squirm in your arms? Tough to do, huh?), the child drops quickly toward the potential abductor’s feet, grabbing below the knees and rolling around until he or she has hooked both his or her arms and legs tightly around the predator’s ankles and hangs on for dear life. The fact is, the attacker can try to pull the child off, can try to beat him or her and can try to kick him or her off, but the results – if the child continues to hold on – is that, more likely than not will end up in the attacker fleeing this noisy bag of trouble attached to his feet rather than carrying out his evil and deadly plans.
3. DROP-LOCK and Roll In Other Venues: Once again, I am restricted by the limitations of this venue and cannot go into all of the preventive techniques taught. But a child can use the Drop-Lock and Roll technique against an abduction attempt while he or she is on a bicycle. Many children have been snatched and grabbed by wily pedophiles off their bikes, but not if they lock their feet around the bottom of the bike and their arms and hands around the middle of the bike while tucking their heads. As always, if there are witnesses around, they should yell “Help me, this is not my daddy/mommy!” In another tragic situation, many children have been abducted right out of their beds with their parents still in the house. That is how confident the victim will not resist their abduction attempt and will not scream out. I guarantee – and believe me – I know these cowards after supervising so many of them over the years – that if these poor children would have resisted or at least yelled out for help, the cowards who had abducted them would have run like scared rabbits. A great adaptation of the Drop, Lock and Roll, however, would be for the child, wakened from sleep by the cold, merciless arms of a sexual predator, to immediately scream and yell into the attacker’s face and latch onto any independent parts of the bed so that the Bad Guy, like the pervert who tried to grab the child off the bike and ended up giving up because he would have had to carry the entire bike along with the child into a car, would be forced to lift the bed along with the kid. If the predator continues to try to grab the child, STICK and COMET-Kids advocates leaping from the bed and latching onto the predator, then Drop-Locking and Rolling onto his legs!
   
   **Once again, COMET-Kids depends on the Courage Coaches (Parents) to provide the impetus for survival here. It is imperative that children are taught and encouraged – and when they do, praised – to act immediately to get back home to their family. After all, this is a Family Defense or Action Plan. Courage Coaches can Role Play these and other Survival Scenarios so that the correct survival response becomes virtually automatic. I doubt that any child who has been through this type of training and who has been supported by a dedicated Courage Coach would silently walk from his or her bedroom into the isolated secondary crime scene of a killer pervert.
   
   
4. FAILURE STRATEGIES: Nothing is foolproof, so you ask “What if Drop, Lock and Roll does not work and the child is dragged inside the predator’s vehicle?” Of course, this is always a possibility. Especially if the abductor has a partner or two working in concert with him or her (yes, women have been known to trick children into trusting the adult male abductor). STICK advocates some interesting tricks once inside the vehicle. Children and parents are taken through these scenarios and are asked to continue with more such role plays at home. These are a few of the escape and evasion strategies designed to delay the abductor’s car from departing the initial crime scene, understanding that the child probably will not return home if the vehicle reaches the isolated and pre-selected secondary scene:

   • Once inside the car refuse to obey any requests or commands to fasten your seat belt. Instead try to jam the metal “male” portion of the buckle in the door’s path
   • Act crazy. Go nuts.
   • Act like you are crying and lean on his shoulder, which is what he wants. Suddenly, after he loosens his defenses, reach over and grab the keys and toss them into the back. Leap onto his chest and position yourself face-to-face with the attacker and grab him and start biting his face and gouging his eyes.

In the next issue I will discuss the COMET-Kids Training Program for Teenagers.

Harry A. Wigder, PPCT Instructor Trainer
Kid Escape Instructor
Bully Escape Instructor
Date Escape Instructor
Director, Action Fighting Arts
www.ActionFightingArts.com
“A Total Threat Management Training System.”
harrywigder@rcn.com
484-542-0040