MSP educates W-M K-12 youth on safety

By IAN MINIELLY

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Wakefield - Michigan State Police Trooper Jerry Mazurek visited the Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 school to discuss lesson 3 from the Teaching, Educating, and Mentoring School Liaison Program on Tuesday. The focus of the lesson is personal safety and recognizing danger.

"Young teenagers are prone to being victims of crime because young people are reluctant to speak up," said Mazurek. The teenagers are beginning to spread their wings and get more freedom from mom and dad and they do not want to risk losing this freedom, so they become "targets of criminals that know this."

Mazurek outlined some basic steps and precautions that will go a long ways towards keeping not only teenagers safe, but all people:

-Travel in groups.

-Know where you are and where you are going in the event you need to report, inform, or run.

-Stay in areas that are well lit.

-Constantly survey your surroundings and think where you could run to in the event of sudden danger to get out of the path of danger and into a safer environment.

-Use your cell phone. It can take pictures of possible assailants, call for help, or even be used as a decoy to make it look like you are discussing the risky or threatening person.

-Do not be afraid so cause a ruckus to draw attention to the situation be aware of how much personally identifiable information you make available through social networking sites and video games. People have turned themselves into easy targets through the giving of information too freely to people they do not know.

-Try to remember details of potentially threatening people.

After discussing the different methods of securing their safety, Mazurek discussed different scenarios and allowed the kids to provide answers.

With safety and the lesson in mind, the kids provided smart, achievable solutions to the scenarios and appeared better equipped to handle themselves in dangerous situations.