WEST MILFORD — Students at Westbrook Elementary School were part of a special stranger safety assembly late in October provided by The Rose Brucia Education Foundation.
The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation was founded by Matthew J. Barbis when his 11-year-old cousin, Carlie Brucia, was abducted and murdered in Sarasota, Fla., in 2004. The foundation’s goal is to reduce the number of child abductions in America by educating and empowering young minds with the knowledge necessary to avoid abduction. Her abduction was the first abduction ever caught on tape and made national headlines.
Since that tragedy, Barbis and his team of award-winning educators have been creating programs for parents and teachers on how to teach children to be safe. Each curriculum is based on the age of the students - puppets are used for the kindergarten and first graders and then characters like "Mr. Know it all" for the second, third and fourth graders while the fifth and six graders learn about mirroring and other safety awareness practices.
Westbrook students learn the dangers
Students in kindergarten and first grade learned who is a stranger and how to get out of a hold. The kids also saw two puppet shows defining, in a non-threatening way, safety in numbers and what do to if you get lost and the importance of having a safety word with their family members
Second, third and fourth graders learned all of that as well as how to answer the door safely.
Fifth and sixth graders learned the importance of stranger safety from Barbis. He told the story of his 11-year-old cousin who was abducted going home from a friend's house and murdered. The older children learned all of the lessons taught to the younger kids plus mirroring techniques and the importance of being a stranger safety role model for their younger siblings, cousins, friends.
In all, 383 children were empowered by the presentation, arming them with stranger safety tips to keep them safe.
Ongoing process
Westbrook school has been teaching stranger safety using the Rose Brucia stranger safety curriculum for two years. This year, Westbrook Principal Dr. Joan Oberer decided to have the Rose Brucia Educational Foundation come out and do specialized assemblies for all grades.
"Stranger safety awareness has become an important aspect of safety in our communities today," said Oberer. "This program has raised our students' level of awareness and provided them with excellent strategies so they can keep themselves and others safe at all times. I want to thank the Rose Brucia Educational Foundation and the presenters for their generosity."
Fundamental concepts
The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation curriculum focuses on three fundamental concepts: awareness, safety and trust. Utilizing health and safety standards established by New York State, the program is designed to reflect these principals consistently throughout all the lessons. The core messages are presented in simple DVD format with individual lesson plans written around each show. They are designed to deliver vital stranger safety concepts to children in a non-threatening, yet thought provoking manner. Each lesson plan includes a checklist of short-term and long-term objectives for the teacher to use as a guide, a list of materials needed to teach each lesson as well as summary statements and suggested homework assignments. Where appropriate, worksheets are also supplied for classroom use. Teachers are able to use each open-ended lesson plan at their discretion throughout the entire school year.
For more information about the Rose Brucia Educational Foundation, go to www.rosebrucia.org.