The objective of this report is to provide a diverse selection of security measures for consideration in protecting family members in a variety of situations. The guidelines offered here can be used to enhance security awareness of your existing location or can be used in planning for a relocation to another city, state or country.
It is essential that security precautions be dynamic, not static, in order to respond effectively to the ever changing level of risk. The adoption of a static, inflexible security posture is indicative of a disregard for the climate of risk and will almost certainly result in a lack of preparedness.
Information in this report can not only serve as a reminder for your consideration, it can also be used to establish an effective sense of awareness for those charged with safeguarding your children. You may also want to discuss it with any daycare providers you employ, as well as your child’s teachers and school administrators. Remember, you set the standards for your child’s safety and security.
Levels of risk can change very rapidly, sometimes overnight, triggered by internal or external incidents or circumstances. It is advisable, therefore, to monitor continually any changes in your neighborhood or school system. An example of a sudden unexpected change in neighborhoods and school systems occurred when displaced families were suddenly moved to unfamiliar neighborhoods and schools as a result of hurricane Katrina.
Children should:
• Be alert, cautious, and prepared tell you about anything that seems out of the ordinary.
• Know the safest route to school, stores, and friends’ houses, avoid isolated areas, and be able to identify safe places to go in an emergency.
• Report any crimes, suspicious activities, or anything that does not seem quite right to the police, school authorities, and parents and guardians.
• Try to walk and play with a friend or in a group rather than alone, and always let a parent or guardian know where they are going to be.
• Stay away from known trouble spots, poorly lit or isolated areas, and strangers who hang around playgrounds, public restrooms, and schools.
• Avoid being around others who tend to engage in forms of violence or use alcohol or other drugs.
• Know to settle arguments with words rather than fists or weapons, and to walk away when others are arguing.
• Avoid contact with all animals including but not limited to cats and dogs
School and Daycare
Parents and guardians need to:
• Determine the reputation of a prospective school, daycare center, or babysitter, and find out if they are licensed, certified, or regulated in any way.
• Find out as much information as possible about individual care providers. Ask for and check references.
• Visit schools and daycare centers unannounced to assess the quality of care that is provided and to observe how the care provider relates to children.
• Consult with other parents and guardians who have used the school, daycare center, or babysitter.
• Be aware of the school or daycare center’s hiring policies and practices to ensure that reference, background, and previous employment history checks have been conducted on its employees.
• Make sure a system of positive identification is in place to ensure that only authorized persons have permission to take children from the school or daycare center.
• Prohibit the care provider from taking their children on an outing without their authorization to do so.
• Inform the care provider as to who is allowed to pick up their children each day.
• Determine whether the facility meets relevant building codes and fire safety regulations and whether emergency plans are in place to deal with evacuation, power outages, and inclement weather.
• Be careful about individuals who have custody of their children. Such individuals should be selected for maturity, experience, recommendations and trustworthiness rather than convenience, proximity, and low cost.
Child Abuse
What is Child Abuse?
Child abuse refers to the physical or mental injury, sexual misuse or exploitation, negligent treatment, or other maltreatment of a minor.
Child abuse is usually not an isolated event but a pattern of behavior that someone in power uses in interacting with a child. Such behavior generally increases in severity and frequency and may be exhibited on either a regular or sporadic basis.
Child abuse occurs in all classes and cultures where isolation, the inability to cope with daily pressures, parental self hate, unprepared parents, social stress, economic instability, or a misdirected sex drive exists.
Child abusers do not all fit a specific profile, but many tend to have been victims of child abuse, family violence, or substance abuse themselves.
Types of Child Abuse
Physical abuse is when someone inflicts bodily harm that leaves a physical injury on a child.
Sexual abuse is when someone in a position of power (usually an adult or older child) sexually mistreats a child either directly or indirectly.
Emotional abuse is when a child is made to feel worthless, unwanted, and unloved. It is any chronic or persistent act by an adult that endangers the mental health or emotional development of a child.
Neglect is when parents or guardians fail to provide for a child either because of ignorance of proper child care, failure to nurture, or deliberate maltreatment. Neglect can also result in child abuse from a bully in an unsupervised school or day care facility.
Preventing Child Abuse by Parents and Guardians
Prevention is often difficult because the line between discipline and abuse is not always clearly drawn, and the child involved is usually financially, physically, and emotionally dependent on the abuser.
Those who abuse children in their care often do so in response to emotional stress or feelings of powerlessness.
Prevention efforts need to be directed toward lessening or eliminating the factors that may cause abusive behavior. Factors can include low self esteem, lack of education, poor child care skills, separation or divorce, social isolation, depression, illness, and financial problems. Education and counseling should be stressed.
Preventing Child Abuse by Others
Parents and guardians need to:
Know where their children are at all times, be familiar with their children’s friends, and show their children safe places in the neighborhood where they can go if they ever feel scared.
• Be alert to a teenager or adult who is paying an unusual amount of attention to their children or giving them inappropriate or expensive gifts.
• Teach their children that no one should approach them or touch them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable. If someone does, they should tell parents or guardians immediately.
• Be careful about babysitters and any other individuals who have custody of their children. Babysitters should be selected for maturity, experience, and trustworthiness rather than convenience, proximity, and low cost.
• Keep a complete written description of their children (including hair, eye color, height, weight, date of birth, and specific physical attributes), take color photographs of their children every 6 months, ensure physician and dental records on their children are current, and arrange to have their children fingerprinted.
• Teach their children to be on the lookout for certain kinds of situations or actions rather than just certain kinds of individuals because abusers can be relatives, neighbors, friends, teachers, ministers, or strangers.
Children should:
• Know how to properly use pushbutton and dial telephones to make emergency, local, and long distance calls. They should memorize their name, address, telephone number, and parents’ or guardians’ work numbers.
• Know how to answer the door and telephone when home alone. They should not let a caller at the door or on the telephone know they are home alone nor allow anyone into the home without asking permission to do so.
• Always ask their parents’ or guardians’ permission to leave the house, play area, or yard or to go into someone else’s home.
• Understand how to operate door and window locks. However, they should not go into their home if the door is ajar or a window is broken.
• Play with a friend or in a group, try to use the buddy system, and never go places alone.
• Avoid isolated areas during the day and at night; stay in well-lit places when it is dark; and be cautious of elevators, parking lots, public restrooms, broken-down buildings, woods, and isolated fields.
• Be alert, walk confidently, pay attention to surroundings, and walk against the flow of traffic to prevent someone from following in a vehicle.
• Stay at least 15–20 feet from the door of a vehicle if someone stops to talk to them. They should never get into a car or go anywhere with any person unless they have the permission of a parent or guardian.
• Understand that no one should be asking them for directions or to help look for something, and no one should be telling them that a relative is in trouble and he or she will take them to the relative. If someone tries to take them somewhere, they should quickly get away from him or her and yell or scream “This person is trying to take me away” or “This person is not my father or mother.”
• Know not to wander around if they get separated from their parent or guardian in a public place. They should go to a security office, checkout counter, or lost and found and quickly tell the person in charge they need help.
• Tell their parents or guardians if something happens that makes them feel uncomfortable or frightened in any way or if someone asks them to keep a secret, accept a gift, or pose for a picture.
• Be aware that no one should touch them on parts of the body that would be covered by a bathing suit.
If You Suspect Sexual Abuse
Young children usually do not lie about or make up the fact that have been abused. On the other hand, parents do not always believe a child who tries with a limited vocabulary to tell an experience he or she doesn’t fully understand.
If you discover your child has been sexually abused, you will experience shock, outrage, and disbelief that such an experience has happened to your child. However, it is important that you try not to react too strongly, because your child’s ability to cope with the abuse depends largely on how you react to the knowledge.
Knowledge of the possible changes a child might experience as a result of molestation gives parents an edge and ensures that these symptoms don’t go unnoticed. No single sign is proof that there has been abuse, but given groups of signals, you should be alerted that something may be wrong.
Possible changes in behavior could include: sleep disturbances—nightmares, bedwetting, fear of sleeping, tiredness from lack of restful sleep; eating problems—loss of appetite, obesity, swallowing problems; fear of certain people or places; excessive masturbation; re enactment of abuse using dolls, drawings, or friends; withdrawal, clinging, fear of separation.
Most children don’t tell about sexual abuse because they are afraid they will be blamed, disbelieved, or even rejected by you. To protect themselves, and you, preschoolers often minimize the experience, repress the incident, and deny the pain. Your care in under-reacting and assuring your child you believe and still love and trust him or her is essential to your child’s healing.
What your child needs most at this critical time is your comfort, love, and support, and your reassurance that he or she is still okay—and that you’re not angry with him or her. Underplay your own valid emotions of rage and injury.
If you suspect your child has been sexually abused, contact your doctor immediately. He or she will be able to recommend you to counseling professionals. Appropriate help can minimize the long term effects of any unfortunate incidents in your child’s life.
Precautionary steps for parents and guardians:
• Maintain a complete identification packet on each child—including recent photographs, description, birthmarks, fingerprints, handwriting samples, voice and video recordings, and passport information.
• Teach each child a code word to indicate that the child is safe and being treated well in the event of kidnapping.
• Have on hand a complete checklist of what to do and who to contact during the initial stages of abduction.
Steps parents and guardians should take if they receive a call that their child has been abducted:
• Remain calm, and maintain a cooperative but professional attitude.
• Request details of demands by caller, and identify to whom the demands are directed.
• Make a note of the caller’s voice, background noise, and any other identifiable information.
• Tape-record the conversation if possible.
• State that it will take time to meet the demands and to make appropriate private arrangements.
• Ask to speak with your child to know that he or she is alive. If this cannot be done, then ask a question that only your child would know the answer.
• Try to end the call on a positive note, no matter what the actual substance of the conversation. Assure the caller that his or her demands will be met.
• Dedicate the telephone number on which the call is received to receive any subsequent calls.
Relocation
As mentioned at the beginning of this report, events can change suddenly as was experienced by families displaced as a result of hurricane Katrina the gulf states.
We normally think of culture shock as applying to relocation from one country to another however, each community has a unique identity that includes a full range of new experiences. Any move from one comfortable and familiar location to a new and unfamiliar location with new surroundings and relationships can be stressful and potentially dangerous due to accidents and unfamiliar people.
Children should be briefed on the relocation process and included in the decision process as much as possible. Discussions should be around cultural restrictions, health precautions and medical services, stress and being separated from friends and family. Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to the relocation process as was noticed by an increase in violence in high schools as the result of students being relocated from hurricane impacted communities. All of the rules you would normally apply to your child in the familiar environment should be re-emphasized in any new and unfamiliar environment.
Spouse and Dependent Activity
The following suggestions should be considered to enhance security:
• Each family member should be familiar with basic security procedures and techniques.
• All family members should know how to use the local telephones, both public and private.
• Family members should not reveal information concerning travel or other family plans; they should be cautious in answering such questions over the phone, even if the caller is known, to guard against the possibility of taps or other leaks.
• Family members should avoid local civil disturbances, demonstrations, crowds, or other high risk areas.
• Children, in particular, should be on guard against being approached or questioned by strangers. It is safer to drive them to school than to let them walk. If they must walk, they should not go alone. Adult escorts are preferable, but even groups of children offer some deterrence. Although children must attend school on a particular schedule, parents are encouraged to vary departures, arrivals, and routes to the extent possible. Use of carpools, especially if scheduling is on a random basis, also breaks down patterns of movement and enhances security.
• The location of family members should be known at all times. Causes of delays or unforeseen absences should be determined immediately. Family members should be encouraged to develop the habit of checking in before departure, after arrival, or when changing plans.
DEPENDENT CHILD SECURITY
Since dependent security is of the utmost importance, parents must:
• Know where children are at all times and be especially aware of their social activities and the facilities they frequent.
• Escort children to and from school and school buses.
• Instruct school authorities that, under no circumstances, are the children to be picked up by persons other than family members or other authorized individuals.
• Instruct children to report to parents any incidents of an unusual nature, e.g., molestation’s and offers of transportation.
• Know the whereabouts of all family members at all times.
• Keep each other informed of whereabouts, itineraries, and expected time of return.
• Caution all dependents to be alert for person watching or observing either the residence or its occupants; and avoid the establishment of family patterns where possible.
• Children should never engage in confrontations with strangers on social issues, religion, politics, national pride etc.
• Children should never accept any food products from strangers. In addition to potentially creating a serious medical problem, the food could seriously conflict with an existing medical condition or medication.
• Crimes of opportunity including assault, robbery, burglary are the universal threat to both adults and children. Items that some children may consider insignificant such as radios, watches etc. may be targeted in an underdeveloped community.
• Children are the primary target for kidnapping since they provide a viable target of opportunity.
• Children should never provide information to strangers about where they are from, where they live, what their parents do. Children should be aware that innocent sounding questions can be used in "profiling".
• Children are particularly vulnerable in a new community to accidents for a variety of reasons including new and unknown threats, lack of awareness in new and exciting surroundings.
• Particular attention should be paid to child care providers since background checks may be more difficult. Allowing strangers inside the "protective circle" of the residence is always a potential threat.
• Children should not accept packages from strangers. Packages could contain explosives, surveillance equipment, or illegal contraband.
• Children should never get into a vehicle with a stranger. While this sounds obvious, a child in a new and unfamiliar community can easily become disoriented and the offer of a ride home by a friendly stranger could sound reasonable.
• Children should always have an emergency contact telephone number that would include the parents, guardian or police along with correct change and instructions on dialing 911.
• Children should never assume that a person can be trusted just because they have a uniform on. The rule is - if the child does not know the person, they should be treated as a stranger. If the person offering assistance is a law enforcement person, they will appreciate the level of caution. Remember, that to a child, a bus driver could look like a police officer.
• Children should have a safe-haven that they can retreat to as the result of an attempted intrusion by a stranger. This could be a secure place in their residence or a nearby friends residence.
PERSONAL SAFETY
Personal safety is largely the responsibility of each individual. Regardless of the local threat, you should take the same safety precautions that you take when in a large urban area. The following suggestions should be considered when planning for personal safety:
• Keep a low profile. Do not dress provocatively or wear flashy or obviously expensive jewelry in unfamiliar settings.
• Learn about the city as soon as you arrive. Most large cities have areas considered generally unsafe after dark or even during the day. Addi¬tionally, there may be some areas where you are at greater risk.
• Do not walk alone after dark.
• Keep alert. If you are walking and believe someone is following, go to a public or well¬ lighted area.
• Women should keep a firm grasp on purses to avoid being an easy target for a snatch and run attack. Keep the amount of money and credit cards you carry at a minimum.
• In some situations a cry for “help” will go unanswered but a cry of “fire” may attract attention. Everyone is familiar with how most people ignore car alarms.
• Keep your vehicle in good repair with an adequate amount of fuel at all times. Keep the doors locked, and do not pick up hitchhikers. If possible, avoid parking on the street or in unat-tended parking lots.
• Do not enter an elevator already occupied by a stranger or suspicious looking person during late hours and in isolated areas. Try to stand next to the control panel and be ready to press the alarm button if necessary, when riding in an elevator.
• Refuse to accept transportation from unknown persons.
SOCIAL AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
To ensure better personnel protection and/or safety during social and recreational activities:
• Prepare invitations when hosting a large social gathering in your home and notify guests that the invitation will be collected upon arrival as a control mechanism to prevent the admission of uninvited or unknown "guests".
• Conduct security checks, if possible, on any temporary domestic help retained for social functions.
• Become acquainted with the neighbors and form a block warning system whereby anyone will notify local police if they observe suspicious persons or activities in the neighborhood or around a residence.
• Periodically discuss with family members the possibility of suspicious activities during social functions and review planned responses with them.
• Limit family social activities and set curfews for dependents contingent on the local situation.
• Be familiar with local language phrases other than English needed to summon help.
• Provide each family member with emergency telephone numbers and the proper local coinage for the commercial phones, if necessary.
• Vary arrival and departure times to regular daily or weekly social events when possible, even though it may be inconvenient.
• Do not discuss social or recreational activities in public places.
• Use only approved recreational facilities where safety and protective features are provided.
• Do not leave catering personnel unattended in your home.
