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American Morning
Keeping Kids Safe
Aired October 02, 2002 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Keeping America's children safe is the subject of a conference today at the White House called by the president, prompted by recent child abductions. The parents of victims among the hundreds of people taking part, and Marc Klaas is one of them. He founded the Klaaskids Foundation after his daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered back in 1993. Marc is a tireless advocate for child safety. He is with us many times, unfortunately to talk about this very topic.
Good to see you again, pal. Good morning to you.
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Hi, Bill.
HEMMER: What can the government do in a case like this, Marc?
KLAAS: Well, they can certainly bring a lot of attention to this very important issue. I've said to you many times that the approach to creating a safe environment for our children is to go from the kitchen table all the way to the cabinet table.
So what they can do, is they can make resources available, for instance, for this national Amber Alert, so all children can be protected by the system in one way or another. They can also acknowledge the wonderful work done by the Southern California sheriffs earlier this year in the way they responded to child abductions and try to make that a national kind of protocol. And I think they can finally do something to just acknowledge the fact that society has a much greater role in this issue now and that we're much better prepared to deal with it than we were in the past.
HEMMER: Marc, help me break this down. You have a series of three items on essentially what we'll call a checklist this morning. Number one, law enforcement first response protocol. You may know what that means, but define it for us?
KLAAS: Well, a child gets kidnapped, and we know that that child can disappear at the rate of a mile a minute. We don't have to look further than my daughter, Samantha Runnion or Danielle Van Damme to know that.
So what has to happen is law enforcement has to bring out all the stops. They have to bring in a multijurisdictional task force. They have to bring in the resources of the FBI, meaning their unlimited resources, their ability to deal with these issues, and their knowledge of stranger types or predatory types of abductions, and then get the word out to the public immediately, which then brings the Amber Alert into it, which is exactly that, law enforcement notifying the media so the media can notify the public, and we've seen this grow considerably since it started being used earlier this year.
HEMMER: The other thing you just mentioned, the expanded Amber Alert. We've talked about that at great length over this past summer. Number three, acknowledging the public's greater role and awareness. When we take these three, Marc, what kind of reaction are you getting from the White House. What sort of reaction do you get between the level of cooperation of states want to have on these items?
KLAAS: Well, you know, I think that president bush is just standing up to it today. This is very exciting. We talk on so many sad occasions. But today, the White House at such a high level is actually acknowledging that the importance of this issue, the importance for the people in this country on this issue. And they are bringing together some incredible people. There is some fabulous people from all over America who do tremendous work for missing kids.
And this is an opportunity to take all three of those goals that I mentioned, and I know that they have other goals as well, but to take them to a new level and really create an environment that's going to be beneficial for children for generations in the future.
HEMMER: Marc, you have talked to thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people personally over the past eight or nine years. You say that you believe it's the parents who are apprehensive when it comes to talking to kids about staying away from the potential for abduction, but it's the kids, you believe, who really want the information and want to learn. What do you learn about that yourself?
KLAAS: There is no doubt in my mind that that's true. Whenever I talk to children, and do I this often, they certainly don't know who I am. When they explain who I am, they really want to get into the issue, and they have really good suggestions.
For instance, a kid told me, if I get kidnapped, I'm going to take a button off my shirt and put it in the ignition of the car, put it where he puts the key. Well, what a tremendous idea that is. You know, kids are thinking all the time. they want information that they can use to protect themselves. That's what being a kid is about. It's about learning and about making a better world for yourself.
So parents have to overcome their own fears, and talk to their kids in an empowering way. And not talk about strangers. That's ridiculous. That's a failed concept from the time when we didn't have a lot of information, but talk to them about checking with their parents and trusting their feelings, and making sure they have cell phones. So again, that is the kitchen table end of it, and today, we're dealing with the cabinet table end of it.
HEMMER: Love that story, love the creativity of the child's mind.
Thank you, Marc. Marc Klaas, enjoy the day.
KLAAS: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 2, 2002 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Keeping America's children safe is the subject of a conference today at the White House called by the president, prompted by recent child abductions. The parents of victims among the hundreds of people taking part, and Marc Klaas is one of them. He founded the Klaaskids Foundation after his daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered back in 1993. Marc is a tireless advocate for child safety. He is with us many times, unfortunately to talk about this very topic.
Good to see you again, pal. Good morning to you.
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Hi, Bill.
HEMMER: What can the government do in a case like this, Marc?
KLAAS: Well, they can certainly bring a lot of attention to this very important issue. I've said to you many times that the approach to creating a safe environment for our children is to go from the kitchen table all the way to the cabinet table.
So what they can do, is they can make resources available, for instance, for this national Amber Alert, so all children can be protected by the system in one way or another. They can also acknowledge the wonderful work done by the Southern California sheriffs earlier this year in the way they responded to child abductions and try to make that a national kind of protocol. And I think they can finally do something to just acknowledge the fact that society has a much greater role in this issue now and that we're much better prepared to deal with it than we were in the past.
HEMMER: Marc, help me break this down. You have a series of three items on essentially what we'll call a checklist this morning. Number one, law enforcement first response protocol. You may know what that means, but define it for us?
KLAAS: Well, a child gets kidnapped, and we know that that child can disappear at the rate of a mile a minute. We don't have to look further than my daughter, Samantha Runnion or Danielle Van Damme to know that.
So what has to happen is law enforcement has to bring out all the stops. They have to bring in a multijurisdictional task force. They have to bring in the resources of the FBI, meaning their unlimited resources, their ability to deal with these issues, and their knowledge of stranger types or predatory types of abductions, and then get the word out to the public immediately, which then brings the Amber Alert into it, which is exactly that, law enforcement notifying the media so the media can notify the public, and we've seen this grow considerably since it started being used earlier this year.
HEMMER: The other thing you just mentioned, the expanded Amber Alert. We've talked about that at great length over this past summer. Number three, acknowledging the public's greater role and awareness. When we take these three, Marc, what kind of reaction are you getting from the White House. What sort of reaction do you get between the level of cooperation of states want to have on these items?
KLAAS: Well, you know, I think that president bush is just standing up to it today. This is very exciting. We talk on so many sad occasions. But today, the White House at such a high level is actually acknowledging that the importance of this issue, the importance for the people in this country on this issue. And they are bringing together some incredible people. There is some fabulous people from all over America who do tremendous work for missing kids.
And this is an opportunity to take all three of those goals that I mentioned, and I know that they have other goals as well, but to take them to a new level and really create an environment that's going to be beneficial for children for generations in the future.
HEMMER: Marc, you have talked to thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people personally over the past eight or nine years. You say that you believe it's the parents who are apprehensive when it comes to talking to kids about staying away from the potential for abduction, but it's the kids, you believe, who really want the information and want to learn. What do you learn about that yourself?
KLAAS: There is no doubt in my mind that that's true. Whenever I talk to children, and do I this often, they certainly don't know who I am. When they explain who I am, they really want to get into the issue, and they have really good suggestions.
For instance, a kid told me, if I get kidnapped, I'm going to take a button off my shirt and put it in the ignition of the car, put it where he puts the key. Well, what a tremendous idea that is. You know, kids are thinking all the time. they want information that they can use to protect themselves. That's what being a kid is about. It's about learning and about making a better world for yourself.
So parents have to overcome their own fears, and talk to their kids in an empowering way. And not talk about strangers. That's ridiculous. That's a failed concept from the time when we didn't have a lot of information, but talk to them about checking with their parents and trusting their feelings, and making sure they have cell phones. So again, that is the kitchen table end of it, and today, we're dealing with the cabinet table end of it.
HEMMER: Love that story, love the creativity of the child's mind.
Thank you, Marc. Marc Klaas, enjoy the day.
KLAAS: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
