By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Stop, you're not my Mom.
This is just one of the phrases children in Niles are learning at the first r.a.d.Kids class offered by Niles City Police Officer Kevin Kosten and Michigan State Trooper Rob Herbstreith of the Niles Post.
The r.a.d.Kids class is taking place at the Niles Law Enforcement Complex Monday through Friday of this week. It teaches the kids to resist aggression defensively and is taught to children between ages five and 12.
On Friday afternoon, from 4 to 7 p.m., there will be a demonstration ceremony for parents to see what they have learned throughout the class.
There are three main principals which are used to teach the kids throughout the class.
The first point the kids are taught is that no one has the right to hurt them, because they are special.
The second principal is they don't have a right to hurt anyone else, including themself, unless someone is trying to physically hurt them. If this happens then they have a right to stop them.
And lastly, nothing that happens to them in the case of a stranger coming up to them is their fault. When it's not their fault, then they can tell someone about what happened.
The r.a.d. Kids program is relatively new and Kosten and Herbstreith are the first ones to run such a class in Berrien County, as they recently attended a kids' safety defense course in order to teach the r.a.d. Kids class. The class is a spin off of the women's rape defense class which is taught in many communities.
The two hour class is broken down into two different parts. For the first part of the class is the curriculum where the kids are taught what exactly a stranger and situations in which it's alright to defend themselves.
The second part of the class is where the kids are taught how to be safe as Kosten and Herbstreith run drills with the kids on different self defense moves.
Worley also attended the course with Kosten and Herbstreith and is planning to implement it into the Girl Power program which she is in charge of at Patrick Hamilton Middle School in Dowagiac.
In Niles, the officers hope to schedule another r.a.d. Kids class soon, so more children will have the opportunity to learn how to protect themselves in dangerous situations.