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Child Safety Training

Back to School Safety Tips

TIPS FOR WALKERS

The Lincoln Police Department would like to remind drivers and pedestrians to be extra careful when a new school year starts. We are asking students to be extra cautious when walking to and from school. Here are a few tips:
Pay special attention to all traffic signals and crossing guards.

  • Never cross the street against a red light, even if you don't see any traffic coming.
  • Wear reflective clothing and bright colors so drivers can see you easier.
    Plan a safe walking route to school or the bus stop. Choose the most direct way with the fewest street crossings and if possible, with intersections that have traffic controls.
  • Advise children to arrive early for buses, stay out of the street, and to wait for the bus to come to a complete stop before approaching the street.

WHEN YOU ARE RIDING A BIKE

  • Wear light or bright color clothes when riding.
  • Always wear your helmet when you're riding.
  • Ride with a friend or your parents.
  • Have a headlight and reflectors on your bike.
  • Learn and obey the traffic rules.

WHEN YOU ARE SWIMMING

  • Before you go around water, you should know how to swim.
  • When you do swim, do it with a friend or your family.
  • If you're going to dive, do it in deep water.
  • When you just learned how to swim it's best to stay in shallow water.
  • If you're not a good swimmer, wear a life jacket near the water.
  • Always wear a life jacket when you're in a boat even if you're a good swimmer.

WHEN YOU ARE ON THE COMPUTER

  • Tell your parents that you are going on-line.
  • If someone says something that you don't like tell your parents.
  • Don't go to a private chat room without your parents.
  • Never tell anyone on-line your name, address or phone number.

Halloween Safety Tips

KEEPING YOUR CHILD SAFE

The Lincoln Police Department encourages safety and supervision during the annual Trick-or-Treat season. It is especially important for parents to adhere to a few safety rules for their children when they are trick-or-treating.

  • Know your treaters' route
  • Take a flashlight
  • Be sure costumes, shoes, and treat bags are safe.
  • Remind kids not to enter strangers' homes or cars.
  • Set rules about not eating treats until kids get home. Be sure to inspect alltreats before allowing kids to eat them.
  • Candy that has been opened should be thrown away. Any homemade treats or fruit should be inspected closely.
  • Remember drivers have a hard time seeing people, especially at dusk.
  • Never cross the street from between parked cars.
  • Watch open flames from jack-o-lanterns as they can catch costumes and long wigs on fire.
  • Make sure that fake knives, swords, and guns are made from cardboard or other flexible materials to avoid accidental injury or worse, have themmistaken for the real thing!

MAKING YOUR HOME SAFE FOR TRICK OR TREATERS

It is also important to ensure that your home is safe and accessible to trick-or-treaters. As adults there are some very simple things we can do to make the evening safe for everyone.

  • Turn on your porch light.
  • Move lit jack-o-lanterns off the porch where kids get bunched up if they are trick-or-treating in groups.
  • Remove objects from your yard that might present a hazard.
  • Drive slowly all evening-you never know what creature may suddenly cross your path.
  • Report any suspicious or criminal activity to the police.

Playing Safely

At the Playground

Every year, about 250,000 kids under the age of 15 require some sort of hospital treatment for playground accidents - from bruises to cuts to broken bones to head injuries. You may be able to supervise your kids while they're playing in your neighborhood, but how can you help them be safe at school and daycare?

Teach your kids some commonsense rules for playground fun, advises Mick Mack, project coordinator for the National Program for Playground Safety.
Show kids which equipment is okay for them to play on according to their age and size. If your child is 5 or younger, they should not play on anything that's 8-feet high. You can judge by looking at the playground equipment what's right for your kids. Look at the height, and the distance between steps and rungs. Today, new equipment is often labeled by age. Look for the signs.
Take a look at the surface of the school's playgrounds. If it's asphalt, concrete, or pavement, ask the school to replace it with sand, gravel, wood chips, or shredded rubber. Why? A child's fall onto concrete from an 8-foot slide has the same impact as a car traveling at 30 mph that hits a brick wall.
Make sure that your kids wear shoes, like sneakers, that won't slide on wet surfaces.

  • Remind kids not to play on wet equipment or force parts of their body through small spaces.
  • Teach your children to watch out for hot metal surfaces, such as slides, that may cause burns.
  • Review simple safety precautions with your kids: Don't cross in front of moving swings. Get off a seesaw only when your partner's feet are on the ground. Don't push or pull others while playing on climbing equipment.
  • Don't encourage young kids to swing faster or climb higher than they're comfortable with. Very young children will naturally stop themselves before they pass their own safety level, as long as they're not egged on by others.

Protecting Your Children

Q-tip
By age four, your child should know the names of most body parts. Many parents and teachers may be uncomfortable talking about genitalia, so preschoolers survey the body this way: "This is my head, neck, arms, hands, chest, stomach, legs, feet." What's missing? Your child needs to know that the penis, vagina, and bottom are parts of the body just like his arm or leg.

Q-tip
Teach your child to distinguish between safe touch and unsafe touch: Safe touch (hugging, consoling, even mussing his hair) feels good. Unsafe touch (hitting, kicking, pinching, molesting) feels bad, uncomfortable, scary, or "funny" (weird).

Encourage your child to trust his instincts about which is which. Let your preschooler know that if he ever feels unsure he should come and ask you or another trusted adult.

Unfortunately, your child may need to deal with dangers closer to home than strangers. The sad truth is that most forms of physical and sexual abuse are not inflicted by strangers, but by someone whom the abused child knows fairly well: parents, other relatives, friends of the family, neighbors. So you will need to teach your child to protect himself from the abuse of people he knows as well as from strangers.

The key to combating child abuse is to empower your child by giving him the right to say no. He needs to understand clearly that:

  • His body is his own body and he has the right to keep it private.
  • He has the right to refuse any kind of touch from another person.
  • He has the right to say no to anyone who wants to keep something a "secret."

If he knows the names of all parts of the body, then you can clearly tell your child that no adult (or older child) other than a parent, doctor, or nurse has permission to touch his penis or bottom. (Of course, younger preschoolers may also need a caregiver or preschool teacher to help wipe them after using the toilet. Make sure that your child understands this exception to the rule.) You can also make it clear that no adult (or older child) has the right to force or ask your child to touch his penis or her vagina.

Emphasize your child's ownership over his own body. His body belongs to nobody else, not even to you. This means that he has the right to say no to any adult who wants to touch him in any way. Even if an uncomfortable touch seems accidental or the person who touches is a relative or someone whom your child trusts, he still has the right to say, "Don't touch me like that."

If you want your child to recognize, appreciate, and exercise his rights over his own body, you will have to respect those rights, too. Don't force physical signs of affection on your child. If you want a hug or a kiss, ask for one. But if he shies away or says no, as some preschoolers begin to do, respect that and back off a little. This same rule should of course be applied to all of your friends and relatives. When your sister comes to visit, you should never command your child, "Give your aunt a kiss." Rather, ask your child, "Do you want to give your aunt a kiss?" If he says no, don't apologize or make excuses. That's his right.

Finally, teach your child the difference between "good secrets" and "bad secrets." An adult who physically or sexually abuses a child will almost always insist that the child keep it a secret—and often threatens harm if he reveals it. So you'll need to give your child guidelines that let him know when to keep secrets—and when to tell them.

A good secret, one that's okay to keep, is usually exciting and fun (a birthday present, or a surprise party). A good secret almost always involves hiding knowledge from one or two special people for a short period of time (hardly ever longer than a month). But a bad secret probably won't make your child feel excited or happy. Instead, it feels like trouble—and no one is ever supposed to find out about it. This is the type of secret that your child should reveal to a responsible adult as soon as possible.

Stay Safe

In the Stay Safe section of our website, you can find a number of tips and ideas to do just that. Stay safe! We believe at the Lincoln Police Department that education is a key factor in crime prevention. In this section you can find ways to keep yourself, your children, you homes, and your businesses safe.

You can also take a look at crime statistics, recent activity, and crimes that have taken place in your neighborhood. Just go to the Special Services tab on the left and you can take advantage of the tools we've provided on our site.