JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Back to school.
Three words every student and parent has heard or read in the aisles of a store the last several weeks.
It’s more than just packing your bags; the FBI said it’s about having a safety plan.
“It is just kind of situational awareness, making sure that you have a responsibility with your kids,” David Collins, Assistant Special Agent in Charge said.
Once the bell rings, and the classes fill up, Collins says to prepare your home as a place where you can go over more than school work.
“They’re your children,” Collins said. “So, if you care about your children, if you love your children, then you need to be actively involved in your children’s life from everything at school to everything at home,” Collins said.
This isn’t a topic to scare people, but it is a reminder that dangers are all around online, on the sidewalk, and in the classroom.
“If your children are targeted, your children should understand that they have the ability to come to their parents or another trusted adult to share that, ‘hey, I might have been a victim, or I might have gotten caught up in something.’”
That could mean a child who has seen or dealt with something at school, online, or even on the walk or ride to school.
No matter what that something is, make sure it doesn’t stay locked in the phone or packed in a bag but brought out.
Collins said the FBI hears the same thing every year. Those kids were too scared to tell their parents something.
“More often than not,” he said. “It shows you the vulnerability of the children. So, the children may have a good relationship with their parent, but because it’s such an embarrassing act, whether it be they sent in, you know, explicit photographs to someone else, I mean, for an adult, that would be embarrassing.”
Collins added that there’s nothing too embarrassing to be brought to the attention of law enforcement and it could be lifesaving.
He said if your family is going through something that happened to their child, you can reach the FBI directly.
“You can call the local field office here in Jacksonville or you can go to our website,” Collins said. “Either way, we’ll get that information and when we see that it relates to, again, children, then we’re going to move very fast on that and get involved and get the victim the resources that they need and then try to pursue those, those subjects that are involved.”
He said the most important thing that a family can do right now is talk to their children and let them know home is a safe place for them to be and to share what is going on in their lives.
Click here to visit the FBI Jacksonville Field Office website.