Fort Huachuca, Arizona -- Through an Army-wide Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation program, youth are learning techniques for being safe and ways to respond to situations and emergencies when home alone.
Fort Huachuca's Child, Youth and School Services Division personnel are teaching these skills to students in all fifth-grade classes at General Myer Elementary School through the imAlone Program.
"We target fifth grade because that's when most children are 10 or turning 10, the minimum age when children on Fort Huachuca can be left home alone for up to four daylight hours, per U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) policy," said Erin Schnitger, Fort Huachuca school liaison officer, who coordinates the training.
The imAlone training takes place for an hour a day over a three-day period in each child's classroom.
On day one, the youth learn about the responsibility and the importance of rules and earning their parents' trust. They learn how to apply the Six Pillars of Character as youth stay "home alone." They discuss how to make good decisions and ways to solve conflicts peacefully.
The students are taught that they must be 12 to babysit younger siblings, and they are not allowed to let friends or anyone else in the house while they are alone. They learn that, while alone at home, they must stay indoors or in their yards. Going to a playground, even if next door, is not allowed.
The children learn ways to organize and use their time wisely.
On day two, Directorate of Emergency Services school resource officers visit the classrooms and assist Schnitger with the training.
On Feb. 9, Sgt. Louis Vanderbeck and Officer Greg Davidson of the Fort Huachuca Police Department accompanied Schnitger to Bette Gallant's fifth-grade class. Dawn Whelan, a training specialist for the School Age and Middle School Teen Centers, also assisted with the program.
The officers, whose beat includes the installation's three schools, visited the classroom in order to introduce themselves to the students and allow the youth to get to know them. The pair showed the children their equipment, explained it, and advised the students against trying to touch it. They also encouraged the boys and girls to approach them at school of they ever had questions or concerns.
During day 2, students drew "bird's eye" views of the interior of their homes and marked locations of phones, bedrooms, first-aid kits and fire and smoke alarms. The youth received papers where they could list their home address, parents' and key adults' work and cell phone numbers, the names of nearby intersecting streets and any allergies they had. The students' homework assignment was to take these maps home, coordinate emergency escape plans and rally points with their Families, and to practice these plans.
The officers told each student to post the papers prominently, in an easily accessible location. Officers explained how anyone could dial the emergency number, 9-1-1, from any phone, including locked cell phones. People should not hang up the phone after making contact but leave the line open-ended so operators can hear what's going on.
Several students acted out scenarios depicting non-emergency and emergency situations in which they should call 9-1-1. While arguing with siblings is not an emergency, an attempted break-in through a door or window is an emergency.
Day three of the imAlone program covers healthy nutrition and features a nutrition-based activity where students prepare an easy snack which does not have to be cooked or microwaved which can lead to burns, house fires, or stove or oven breakage.
"We also teach rudimentary first aid," Schnitger said.
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