'Fighting Chance' teaches kids survival tips

As summer vacation beckoned just beyond the school yard, youth services officers Chris Griffith and Teresa Duffy were having a tough talk with sixth-graders at Meneley Elementary School.

The class was separated by gender.

Duffy asked the girls seated in a semicircle around her:

"Do you know what the word 'rape' means? Is there anybody here who doesn't know?"

Nobody raised a hand or made a sound.

"The goal of most predators is to violate you sexually, torture you and kill you," she said in a no-nonsense voice.

Once she had their attention, Duffy told the girls the story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, and added the happy ending that had eluded her for 18 years.

Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped in 1991 from a school bus stop near her South Lake Tahoe home. She was reunited with her family last August, 18 years after she was abducted and forced to live with her captor.

"She's one of the lucky ones," Duffy said. "She made it home. Probably only one out of 100 do that."

Just before the end of the school year, Duffy and Griffith took the students through "A Fighting Chance," a safety program that Dugard's mother and the South Lake Tahoe Soroptimists created after the kidnapping.

The program is funded in Douglas County by Carson Valley Soroptimists.

"She (Jaycee Lee) was the perfect victim," Duffy said. "She was by herself when she was taken on her way to school."

Duffy and Griffith dispelled any myths that the children might harbor that they were safe walking alone to or from school or out in their neighborhoods.

"You're 12. You think you're old enough and big enough to take care of yourselves, right?" she said.

She reminded the girls that their parents still need to know where they are at all times.

"Summer is upon us and we want to make sure you have tools to be prepared," she said.

Duffy demonstrated techniques like the human chain, which only works if a child is accompanied by friends.

The girls said they'd been taught by their parents never to talk to strangers, but acknowledged that a kidnapper could be anyone.

"Is an abductor always a stranger? Could it be a coach or a police officer? Could it be a fireman or a doctor? Could it be a woman?" Duffy asked.

She arranged the girls on their feet in a big circle to demonstrate how they could defend themselves. They have to be prepared to bite, scream, kick, claw and punch their way to freedom.

"Keep telling yourselves that you're going to fight till every last piece of your life is gone. You have to have mental toughness. Are you going to be scared? Yes. I don't care if they have a knife or a gun, I'd rather put up a fight," Duffy said.

If somebody grabs a backpack or sweatshirt, she told the girls to wriggle their way out of it and let it go.

"You'd better be prepared to give up anything, otherwise you're not going home," she said, emphasizing "get away, right away."

She and Griffith told the students they need more than "Plan A."

"Use whatever it takes. Go through the alphabet 100 times," she said.

Griffith assured the students they had a legal right to protect themselves even if it means hurting or killing their attacker.

"Never give up," he said. "Never stop creating a plan."

Griffith said the straight talk occasionally elicits comments or concern from parents who want to protect their children from such harsh realities.

But after 40 years in law enforcement, Griffith said he would prefer to be frank with the students and give them "a fighting chance" rather than deliver grim news to a parent after the fact.

"Children need that mental toughness," Griffith said.

Twelve-year-old Madelynne Mehoves said it comforted her to have the knowledge shared in the class.

"There's a lot of kidnappers on the loose," she said.

Classmate Taylor Lynch agreed.

"It's really good advice in case you never knew what to do," Taylor said.

Both students said girls shouldn't be afraid to fight back.

"Don't back down because you're a girl," Madelynne said. "Never give up."

Taylor said girls were good screamers and that would be an advantage.

"My dad tells me to fight if I am in this kind of situation. Always have a plan," she said.