State Essay Contest Winner

​​This is How I Stay Safe All Day

By Davis

Snatch! Another innocent child is abducted. About 28,000 children go missing in Florida each year. But it is possible to prevent this from happening, if you know what to do when a strange person walks up to you and tries to get you to come with them. I will be telling you some safety tips in this essay so that you don’t end up on the next AMBER alert.

First off, try to prevent yourself from getting chosen for abduction in the first place. Children that are abducted are usually ones who are alone and their parents aren’t around. Also, try to refrain from wearing any jewelry, clothing or backpacks with your name on them. If an abductor sees this, he or she can say they are one of your parents’ friends and say your name to try to prove it. “Safe Steps to Protect Florida’s Children”, states that, “Children should be taught that it is okay to say “no” - even to an adult.” This is true because if someone is trying to force you to go with them so that they can abduct you, it is very easy to just say, “no” and get away as fast as possible. If you do this, the abductor won’t mess with you.

To continue, if the abductor grabs you, feel free to kick, punch, elbow, scream, yell, do anything to try to pry yourself loose from the abductor’s grip. As a bonus, all that screaming and shouting is sure to cause a scene and turn some heads. It is likely that someone will come to help you. If you do manage to wriggle free from the abductor’s grip, try to run like the wind to the nearest safe place and call 911. A safe place could be a local business, such as a supermarket, park, or restaurant, basically any public place. As soon as you get there, let an adult know that someone just attempted to abduct you and ask if you can call the cops. When you meet up with the police, try to remember every detail about the attempted abduction. Tell the authorities what the abductor looked like, what their car looked like, or most usefully, the abductor’s license plate number. With this information, the police should be able to catch the abductor, and they won’t be taking kids any longer.

Finally, try to keep yourself safe on the Internet, as well. According to the Office of the Attorney General, it should be a family rule to, “Never give out identifying or personal information - home address, school name, telephone number, or age in chat rooms or bulletin boards.” These rules will make it easier for you to be safe on the Internet. Now, imagine someone that you are talking to in a chat room on the internet begins to start asking for personal information and it is making you uncomfortable. What would you do? Luckily, the Internet has many features that you could use to protect yourself. You could leave the chat room, or if you are the owner of the chat room, you could kick/ban that person from the chat room. If you want to go a step further than that to stop them from terrorizing you, you could block them or even report them to the website your chat room is on. These same strategies could also be used if you are being cyberbullied. Now that you have blocked all contact with that person, you will probably never talk to them again, and you are as safe as can be.

In conclusion, abduction is a serious issue, that, hopefully, after looking at these tips, you personally will never end up in an AMBER alert. Remember to stay in a group, fight back, and keep information private on the Internet. If you want to warn others, try teaching them these strategies.​​​