AMBERLEY, Ohio — One local teacher isn’t waiting for classes to start to teach an important lesson.
“This problem is not going away. Everyone needs to know how to keep themselves safe,” said teacher and author Ilana Nadel. That’s why she wrote a book to teach children age 5 and younger about what to do if they encounter a violent intruder.
But how do you drop that sort of information on a 5-year-old?
The plot of “Safety For You And Me” is a universal one as told by a monkey, rhino, koala and other animals. The goal of the book is to save lives.
“When our teacher says safety outside — we must run in a zig zag pattern as quickly as we can to our outdoor meeting spot.”
- From “Safety For You And Me”
“No child has died in a school fire since the late 1950s because schools drill for fire. They drill monthly,” Nadel said. “Now the violent intruder drills are being required to be done. It’s our hope this is a chance to teach them.”
Nadel worked closely with the police and fire chief of Amberley Village, Rich Wallace, to develop the new way of educating kids.
“The world is revolving faster and social media and TV shows are impacting the kids,” Wallace said. “If we can get them at an early age and let them know we’re here to help and educate them right — that’s the goal to success.”
The book, which can be requested online for free, has been adapted by the Alice Training Institute. It includes a fill-in-the-blank section, so teachers or parents can fill in specifics, like the name of a city’s fire chief.
“It puts us in a different light,” Wallace said. “It gave us another way — another tool to reach out to these kids.”
Nadel is now in the process of writing a second book which focuses on drug safety and the dangers of touching or inhaling drugs.
