My kids came home on thrusday with a paper from the school. Here is what the letter said:

"On 02/14/2007 at about 1700 hours, suspect approached a 10 year old male as he walked along (name of street removed). Suspect grabbed the victim and forced him into the back seat of the suspect vehicle. Suspect threatened the victim with a red folding knife. The victim struggled and was able to exit the vehicle and flee. The suspect left the area northbound toward (name of street removed)." It also has a large police drawing of the suspect and a description and vehicle.

Then yesterday we got a call from the principle of my kids school. There was another attempted kidnaping accross the street from my kids school on thursday. A man tried to force a high school girl into a white truck.

Now I am a bit freaked out. We live in a small town. I have talked to my kids about safety and strangers and they know whenever they play outside they have to stick together. Now they are afraid to even go outside. They think someone is waiting around the corner to steal them. They are to the point they are even afraid to be outside after dark with me.

Thanx for listening while I vent.

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I would put a call into the school, and see if there are any assemblies being set up to talk to the children as a large group about everything - to remind them of methods for keeping safe, for reporting suspicious people, etc.

Also, I'd see if there is a counselor at school who can see your children to address any of their real fears. They may need to see someone who can help put things into perspective - this was obviously a traumatic event for them, and they might be actually having an episode of "post-traumatic stress disorder" which is situational, and can be addressed with short term assistance from a therapist. There may be many children who are suffering from this, and many children may need help. I would definitely see what the school is planning to do (if anything) to address this.

Good luck!

That's really scary. Maybe you should also find out if there are any adults outside watching for these things at the schools? There should be with both of those incidents happening recently.

Sounds like the school is trying to do the right thing. We had an incident last year at a school near ours so we all got a phone call from the principal(recorded) letting us know what happened and that they would be holding a special assembly the next day and each classroom teacher would be discussing "stranger danger".

I hope your school does the same thing.

Oh my gracious!! As a parent this is just an awful topic to see. There are some people that think of me as being overprotected but when I read things like this I know that I am doing what feels right for me!!!
Take care and I hope this all has ended in your area by the time I finish posting this.

This is also another reason that I like being updated by sites like bulldog to see who lives near my childs school.

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Wow-- that is scary indeed. Hopefully, the police withh catch the guy.

I am pretty overprotective about my kids. They don't play outside unless a grownup is out there with them. It's so sad... I remember growing up riding my bike for hours until dark with my friends, but in the day and age, parents don't feel safe letting kids do that.

Holly

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