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Jennie Markowicz’s fourth-grade class at Fell Elementary School, 900 W. Oregon Ave., recently participated in Philadelphia’s “Need in Deed” program. It allowed her students to choose a topic of interest, and in Markowicz’s words, “educate themselves about it and then complete service and learning projects based around it.” Her class chose kidnapping over gun violence, animal abuse and child abuse.
“We bring experts to their classrooms to talk about whatever subject matter the kids are interested in,” Tyra Washington, a program manager at Need in Deed’s Center City office said. “Our process is driven by the student voice.”
And the students were very well-versed about their project upon a classroom visit.
“We did a lesson for K through 2 students,” Ishmael said. “Everyday we did it at 10:30 [a.m.] and 2:15 [p.m.] – we teach them about stranger danger.”
“We made posters saying why people want to kidnap, facts about kidnapping, how to prevent kidnapping and what you should do if you ever got kidnapped,” Angie explained.
As Eric put it, “We had two State Troopers and an FBI agent” visit their classroom. Emma said that only 1 percent of kidnapped kids get saved, and the students detailed the way Amber Alerts work and how the FBI gets involved when perpetrators cross state lines.
The class held raffles and conducted a scooter basketball tournament to raise nearly $500 for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They’ll present a check in a ceremony in the coming weeks.
Emma noted that a good tactic for families to prevent kidnapping is to create a “secret password and no one else will know it.” So if a stranger says they were sent by a family member, children can ask “What’s the password?” They also learned that screaming “Fire!” may be more functional for getting help in the case of an abduction because shouting “No!” may not be as useful.
Spike noted that kidnappers might kidnap “because they can’t have their own children” and that “kidnappers might look nice and not mean.”
They explained what a ransom is and that 45 percent of children die within one hour of kidnapping. Thankfully, Angie also reports that “when the FBI agent came he said that in 2013 there were only eight real kidnappings.
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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