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Parents Turn Out in Droves for Child Safety Seminar

While strong winds of the impending hurricane blew outside, a crowd of over 600 parents gathered inside the Oholei Torah ballroom for the Safety Kid seminar.

The tremendous showing proved that Crown Heights parents are serious about tackling the epidemic of child abuse in our community, and was the cause of much excitement and optimism among those dedicated to its eradication.

The program, brought to Crown Heights by the Merkos Chinuch Office, addresses the grave issue of Child Abuse in the Jewish community, and provides training for parents, teachers and children on how to combat the epidemic.

In last night’s session, parents were given instructions on how to detect abuse, how to deal with a scenario of suspected abuse, and how to educate their children to avoid such circumstances in the first place.

The Sunday night seminar was combined with a scheduled second seminar that was to take place Monday night at Lubavitcher Yeshiva, but was canceled due to severe weather conditions.

Rabbi Nochum Kaplan, director of the Merkos Chinuch Office, described the turnout as “overwhelming.”

“On a night like last night, we never expected such a response,” he said; “I estimate that at least half of all Crown Heights children below 4th grade had a parent present at the seminar.”

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21 Comments

  • interested parent

    when is the 2nd night scheduled for those that couldn’t attend Sunday night?

  • Mother

    Sounds like a great turnout.. but many did not come because of the storm and would really like to…. I hope they are going to do it again!

  • Event

    Kol hakavod to Mrs. Rivkah Cohen and Mrs. Brochie Kogan for arranging the event!
    Thanks

  • turn yourself in!

    too bad they didn’t have a table set up for pedophiles to turn themselves in . . .

  • parent

    AMAZING! Credit has to be given to all our community schools for getting behind this project, coming up with the funding and supporting this very important initiative!! Thank you to all the menahalim that supported this project!!

  • PARENT THAT WAS THERE

    B”H

    Why not post the video for the parents that didn’t make it.
    It was very informative and it is wonderful that they are attacking this issue.

  • proud!!!!

    Beautiful Beautiful!!! We can proudly see that our community is on the right path with our children and giving them a happy, safe and secure future!! Thank you to the people that organized this and brought awareness to us!!!

  • A Parent

    PLEASE reschedule the second night..Went to the one last night and feel VERY strongly that my husband should also hear it first hand …This is SO important !

  • Also couldn-t come on Sunday

    Also, is there a way to obtain the handouts if one wasn’t able to attend?

  • 770

    nobody thought do send a reminder.. forget with the panic of the storm. please do it again

  • thank you

    was ABSOLUELY bRILLIUANT!!!!!
    i hope there is a second one so everyone who didnt make it could come
    there is hope for this generation :)

  • staff member in the dark

    Is there a program for teachers tonight? Please post details. THanks

  • No program tonight.

    There are no programs tonight due to the weather. Iyh, there will be a second Parent workshop for those who did not yet attend. Once this storm passes, we will schedule it and post it.

  • why no lessons on safe web surfing??

    the program was very informative and a real breakthrough but at the end the speaker casually mentioned that in this community they will not be discussing safe web surfing with the children in school. why?? in a community where almost every home has internet access i was very surprised to hear this

  • E.E.

    The evening was amazing am so happy that I went. However, the reason for great turnout was the fact that the schools made it mandatory.

  • Sandy Klein

    To number 17:

    Disagree. I hope that pre-1aer’s through fourth graders do not have to be taught how to “surf” the web safely, because they shouldn’t be surfing the web at all even if there is internet in the home!

  • mom in ch

    to number 19-

    I can’t count how many times I have allowed my young child to go on a playdate only to find out that the parents had unsupervised internet usage. Oh…they tell me- I only keep it on the educational sites…but there is no filter – children eventually do need to know how to surf safely – if only because outside of their safe home there are other ways to access a computer. Also there needs to be training for the older kids.

  • to 17

    There is only one way to mitigate unsafe web usage. The one way; is by making the web usage available to a child extremely limited. A filter helps but isn’t 100% fool proof. My personal opinion is that 99% of children will eventually look for inappropriate things online during their childhood if they have access to the internet without constant supervision.

    (Ain aputropos l’arayos means that man can’t be trusted in these matters because in this aspect we possess unrefined animalistic tendencies. That’s why there are harchakos of no touching etc. Therefore man has zero credibility to rely on discipline and must be constrained by halacha or by self imposed constraints where necessary.)

    We live in a world which is full of garbage, and the internet makes it all one click away. There is a concept called hormones which are the way we were created and if children could get away with it, especially being that children are; a) curious b) raging with hormones, they WILL look for the filth.

    Adults who disagree with the above have their heads in the sand. That may sound arrogant but I believe my words to be true. It’s one man’s opinion.