Course teaches children basics of self-defense

If you're stupid enough to get inside 11-year-old Tara Meyer's "safety bubble," be prepared for what's next: First, her left palm will shoot toward your nose, followed at blurring speed by her right.

Then she'll quickly spread her arms like wings and snap them like a bear trap, smacking your ears so hard you'll forget all about the piercing shrieks she's making to draw attention to you.

Those are just a few techniques she learned in a children's self-defense course taught by Mike and Lisa Simmons of Lionhearts, a martial arts program in Cape Girardeau.

"You get a feel for what could happen and how to get a strategy going," Meyer said of the course. "I felt like it really worked."

No matter how many times it happens, the nation's parents collectively grow nervous when another child abuction hits the headlines. Last week, the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia of Sarasota, Fla., drew attention back to a dark but familiar story.

The majority of missing children in the United States are runaways, according to studies by the U.S. Department of Justice. Of the 797,500 children reported missing in 1999, 203,900 were abducted by relatives, 58,200 were taken by nonrelatives, and 115 were victims of the most serious nonfamily abductions called "stereotypical kidnappings," like Brucia's.

Last month, parents of St. Vincent de Paul School in Cape Girardeau were alerted by the school's newsletter about an incident suspected as an attempted abduction. A young girl said a couple asked her to get into a car because her mother was having emergency surgery. She did not go with them. The incident was later determined to be a case of mistaken identity and not an attempted abduction, according to the school's latest newsletter.

"Nonetheless, it is good for all to be aware of our surroundings and review safety precautions," wrote principal Nancy Herberlie in the newsletter.

For Cape Girardeau parent Karen Belcher, Brucia's death closely coincided with her enrolling 11-year-old son, DJ, in Lionhearts. Monday was DJ's third class.

"We were looking for something like this, because at this point he's reached the age where he's going outside on his own more and has more freedoms," she said. "This way he develops a general awareness of the things that can happen."

A vulnerable age group

Mike Simmons reviewed with his students the typicial lures abductors use and how to avoid them. He was blunt about the dangers.

He also discussed the now famous video footage captured by a security camera of Brucia being led away by a man grasping her right arm. He demonstrated the approach on Meyer, showing how important it is to keep a wide distance from anyone who approaches the safety bubble -- the distance just beyond outstretched arms and fingers.

"They don't have to let anybody into that space that they don't want to -- not a parent, a pastor, not anybody," he said. "Because if they can grab fingers, they can grab an arm and then they can grab you."

Children between the ages of 11 and 14 years old are especially at risk, he said.

"Those who are younger than that tend to be kept close to mom," he said. "Those who are older are hanging out in groups. It's the between ones who are most often targeted because they're out playing alone or maybe they're walking to the park alone for the first time."

Hitting not always wrong

Simmons reminded them that sometimes it's OK to ignore those lessons they'd learned from parents that hitting is wrong and to always use an "indoor voice" with adults.

"It's better if you scream and run right here on the playground than if you get in a car with someone -- because you will not come back," he said.

When DJ asked what to do if a gun is pointed at him, Simmons' answer was direct:

"Run," he said. "If they're holding a gun on you now, they'll shoot you later. If you run now, you might get shot, but at least someone will be more likely find you. If they're the kind of person who'd pull a gun on a child, what makes you think they'd keep their word and let you live? It's like bargaining with the devil. You do not come back."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160

STILL MISSING:

In the last five years, 12 Missouri children have been added to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's list of missing children at www.missingkids.com. Recent additions include:

Essence Janay Echols, 16, of Florissant, Mo., vanished Dec. 19, 2003, and is considered an endangered runaway. She may still be in that area.

Shawn D. Hornbeck, now 12, disappeared from Richwoods, Mo., Oct. 6, 2002. He was last seen riding a 21-inch green mountain bike to a friend's house.

Christian Ferguson, now 10, of St. Louis, Mo., was in a relative's vehicle June 11, 2003, when it was stolen that morning. The vehicle was recovered but he remains missing. He has a medical condition requiring daily medication that is not with him. He was last seen wearing a diaper and was wrapped in a multicolored blanket.

Anyone with information about these or any other missing children should call the center at 1-800-THE-LOST.