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Penticton  

Kid Safe Martial Arts

In this case, it's probably a good thing for a child to throw a 'hissy fit.'

A new program in Penticton designed to keep young children safe teaches them to defend themselves by way of kicking, screaming and biting.

Offered for free by Premier Martial Arts, this course entitled, 'Kid Safe' teaches children how to protect themselves from being abducted.

Dan Albas of Premier Martial Arts says the course has two levels of instruction.

“We are teaching the children how to protect themselves in two ways, one physically and one mental. For example on the mental side we teach kids the 'traffic lights of safety,' which gives them a way to categorize a situation, to figure out what is safe and what is not,” says Albas.

He says that since a child cannot over-power an adult, they teach methods a child can utilize if a stranger tries to abduct them.

“We say to the children that their job is to get attention and slow down the abduction by biting, kicking, dropping to the ground or yelling 'this is not my dad,'” says Albas.

He says that people can't help but pay attention to a yelling child.

“We've all seen children being dragged to their cars in a parking lot for misbehaving in a store, but if that child suddenly started yelling, 'help, help, this isn't my dad,' the whole store would be in an up-roar,” says Albas.

The program runs Thursday night and again on June 29th at the Cannery Trade Centre, starting at 6:30.


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