June 2, 2017
CONTACT: Officer Chuck McPhilamy
770.794.5370
Marietta City Schools have agreed to partner with the Marietta Police Department to create new innovative ways to help educate and protect the children in our community. For the first time, Radkids will be brought to children by a combined effort of a school district and a police department.
The Marietta Police Department has offered the Radkids safety education program for 3 years. The classes have been a 10-hour course designed for children between the ages of 5 and 12 years old. Topics covered included: how to prevent bullying, and how to stay safe while on the internet, at home, at school, in a vehicle, and outdoors. In addition to these issues, instructors discussed tricks used by child predators and the physical resistance strategies that kids can use to thwart these possible child abduction attempts. The challenge has been the limited resources to hold enough classes to reach as many children as possible.
Marietta City Schools will now teach the Radkids program to ALL the children attending Marietta City Elementary Schools. They have made plans to send all Elementary physical education teachers to a Radkids training course this summer. This was made possible by a generous donation by Gary Martin Hayes and Keep GA Safe Foundation. The school system has agreed to implement the program into their elementary school curriculum for the 2017-18 school year.
This new outreach to elementary students is in addition to the Internet safety seminars that the school recently hosted for all Marietta High School Freshman and Sophomores. Before the summer break, Dr Rivera worked with the Marietta Police Department to have MPD detectives and cyber specialists speak with the entire Freshman and Sophomore class specifically about the dangers they can encounter on line. Plans are still being developed for how that program will continue and be enhanced in the 2017-18 school year.
The Marietta City school system and police department will continue to work together to identify and implement new ways to help keep our children safe.