Preventing Child Abductions at Theme Parks

[vic p.]

The following is a copy of an e-mail I sent to the management of Six Flags Discovery KIngdom, California, a sad excuse for a family amusement park. We were already disappointed with the place before the following incident happened. I really have no one to blame for what happen to my child but myself, but I did expect alittle help from the people who work there.

 

On July 18,2007 we were at DiscoveryKingdom with our 5 year old child. She disappeared from our sight. We could not find her. After a few minutes of looking for her, I informed a park worker that my child was missing and I needed to get security to help me. The worker DID NOT have a radio and told me to try asking the attendant at a near by attraction. That worker also DID NOT have a radio and told me to go to another attraction and MAYBE someone there would have one. That worker did have one-I do not know who that person called but I excepted someone to help me or show alittle concern that maybe this may be a SERIOUS SITUATION. NOT ONE SECURITY PERSON EVER APPEARED. In the meantime, my husband ran to the guest relations to alert security that a child was missing. Their answer to him was "fill out a form" ARE YOU KIDDING ME! IS THERE ANY ACTION PLAN TO STOP A POSSIBLE CHILD ABDUCTION? DOES YOUR COMPANY TREAT EVERY LOST CHILD SITUATION THIS WAY. My child did reappear after 15 minutes-she had decided to ride on the train by herself. WE WERE LUCKY. WHAT HAPPENS THE NEXT TIME AND THE CHILD NEVER REAPPEARS. IS FILLING OUT A FORM GOING TO HELP THAT SITUATION? When my child came back to me, we went to the front gate to wait for my husband. While we were waiting I noticed that PEOPLE WERE ALLOWED TO LEAVE! WHY WASN'T THE GATE CLOSED AND PEOPLE STOPPED FROM LEAVING. IF A MOLESTER HAD MY CHILD SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN GONE! THIS SEEMS TO BE OK WITH YOUR COMPANY! When I realized what WAS NOT HAPPENING(PEOPLE NOT BEING ALLOWED TO LEAVE) I WAS FURIOUS. OF COURSE I SCREAMED AT THE 18 YEAR OLD MANAGER. SHE DID NOT CARE. YOUR COMPANY DOESN'T CARE. Disneyland, Target,Toys R' Us HAVE ACTION PLANS. When there is a lost child-THE GATES/DOORS ARE LOCK AND NOONE IS ALLOWED TO LEAVE! SHAME ON YOUR STAFF. THEY ARE POORLY TRAINED. I hope this NEVER HAPPENS TO ANYONE AT YOUR PARKS.

[Jew]

I've never heard of Disneyland closing their exit for a lost child...that's asking way too much of a park. Give the employee at the exit a description of the lost child? Sure. That's easy enough for any park (and should have been done if that is really what happened), but you're kidding yourself if you expect a park to go on lockdown because you were an irresponsible parent.

[OldJJman]

Disneyland, ..... HAVE ACTION PLANS. When there is a lost child-THE GATES/DOORS ARE LOCK AND NOONE IS ALLOWED TO LEAVE!

 

You are an absolute fool if you truly believe that.

 

On second thought, perhaps you should test your theory at Disneyland, and see where that gets you.

 

In reality, don't even try that. That "action plan" you dream of does not exist.

 

Perhaps keeping a better watch on your child would be the best "action plan" out there?

[terrancew_hod]

You know when I was a child, I never left my parents' side because I knew the consequences of running off when i got back--I was going to get my butt torn up by both parents. They didn't play either--it was going to be one old tag team.

 

Even though that won't work for all parents, your children have to know before you go to some big public place that you're in charge and they're not to leave your side. It seems a lot of parents don't do that and these kids get away with stuff and all you hear from the parent is a half-hearted "Don't do that." If that's the best they can do, then no wonder the children are running wild. If you don't have control over your child and you aren't going to watch them, then you don't need to be taking them someplace where they're gonna run off on you. Get one of the child leashes if you can't keep them from running off.

 

YOU have to be the one responsible for your children at all times, not pass the responsibility off. You can't expect security to do that, and that's how predators prey... on people that aren't paying attention.

 

And I agree with the others as far as park lock downs. Most times what happens is it what happened to your child... they got on another ride or ran into a candy or toy store when the parents weren't paying attention. No one is going to do that so you shouldn't expect parks to be extreme like that. Just watch your kids at all time and teach them not to run off from you.

 

Terry

[UFAlien]

The form they were going to have you make out WOULD have helped. It was most likely the form for a park-wide announcement over the loudspeakers. I know this has happened before at my Six Flags.

[ginzo]

Yeah, you really can't expect a park to drop everything because of a "lost parent". Many parks have "lost parents" booths to help with this situation. If they closed the gates every time a kid got lost, the gates would be closed more than they were open.

 

As others have pointed out, your child is your responsibility, not the park's. 99.999% of the time when a child gets lost in a park everything turns out fine. So suck it up and stop expecting for the worst!

[rollocoast]

Become a better parent, then we'll talk.

[Canadmos]

Afterall, it was YOU that lost your child.

[Spokker]

So who is responsible for your child when you aren't at a theme park? When your kid wanders away and into traffic are you going to complain that the city didn't have an ACTION PLAN to protect kids from child moles- I mean your stupidity?

[SharkTums]

While I agree with everyone that ultimate responsibility is ALWAYS on the parent or guardian. I think we can be a bit nicer.

 

Having worked in a theme park I can tell you I was also shocked at the lack of any real way to find lost kids or do anything about it. Not enough employees have radios, and security is never actually around when you need them.

 

That being said...watch your damn kids! It's that easy, just pay attention to them.

 

Oh, and don't put them on freakin leashes...leashes are for pets, not children.

[arrowfanman]

Every time I was taken to a theme park as a kid, we went through a "ritual". This ritual concluded with my parents stopping at Guest Relations on the way into any given park and explaining "if we get separated, this is where you need to go to find us. If you dont know where this is, ask the nearest employee and he/she will help you." It became such a ritual, that I remember it vividly to this day.

 

 

 

All I'm saying is, it's important to take preemtive action in situations like this, such as informing your child what to do in these cases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on a different note, I suggest splitting up your text and NOT TYPING LIKE THIS...it'll make it easier on the guest relations representative reading your letter.

 

-Jahan

[ginzo]

While I agree with everyone that ultimate responsibility is ALWAYS on the parent or guardian. I think we can be a bit nicer.

 

Having worked in a theme park I can tell you I was also shocked at the lack of any real way to find lost kids or do anything about it. Not enough employees have radios, and security is never actually around when you need them.

 

That being said...watch your damn kids! It's that easy, just pay attention to them.

 

I agree that parks should be more equipped to handle these situations, especially since this park since Six Flags is supposedly rebranding into a chain of family-oriented parks. But, I also don't think that yelling at park employees is going to convince the park to divert their limited resources towards this end.

 

I am also bothered by this belief that many parents have that the world is out to steal their child. Yes, there are horrible people out there, but they aren't lurking everywhere. The vast majority of these cases turn out fine. Parks can't be expected to lock the place down and give everyone a body cavity search every time a kid goes walkabout.

 

This person should write a very calm, rational letter to Shapiro about the problem. Apart from the business reasons to work on this, it's just the right thing to do for their customers.

[ECZenith]

I remember being a kid and ALWAYS coming up with a plan if myself or my littl ebrother were seperated when we went to SFNE, we'd always meet at the gazebo on Main St.

 

Now I work with kids in human services and when we take them to SFNE the idea is to just never let them leave your eyesight. I know most deprtment stores have a CODE ADAM system in place to recover lost kids but with a place as large as a theme park you can't just shut everything down and cut off all exits, it just doesn't work for the other thousands of people walking the park. I agree the sytsem could be a little better but take some responsibility and don't just blame the park...

[burningstroller]

Sounds like a great terrorist scenario. Report a lost child, gates are locked, detonate.

[Vekoma Fan Boy]

My parents give me a cell phone whenever I go out, (though I am very limited to WHERE I can go, and I must have a friend with me, but if one thinks about it, thats a good thing...) But I agree with Elissa, don't put your friggin kid on a leash. It is one thing if they are a toddler who is just learning ho to walk, can barely talk, and doesn't really understand the principle of "Do what I say" (IMO, most people shouldn't be taking that young a kid to a park when they are that young sets with good parents and/or good kids excluded) but I still disagree with it. And the park should have a better "Plan" (not a LOCKDOWN plan but still something sensible...) when a child is reported missing.

[Kingda Ka 456]

I do think the kids' parents have got to keep an eye more on the crowded spot, and it's so good to both too. This makes the number of lost kids go down like a big dipper!

[terrancew_hod]

Although you may disagree with the leash, they work. Preferrably people that use them need to get those parenting skills together. But if a person can't get their child to stay at their side, it's a problem and it's better to use it than have them wonder off and have stuff like this happen.

 

Terry

[arrowfanman]

^ And they also now come in less "leash-like" arrangements, such as ones that look like teddy-bears and double as backpacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry...I've been around a lot of kids lately.

 

-Jahan

[SharkTums]

I will just never understand any of the leash type products. If you can hold a leash, hold your kids hand. Done.

[ginzo]

I will just never understand any of the leash type products. If you can hold a leash, hold your kids hand. Done.

 

Oh but the leash product is just another weapon in the arsenal of the crazed stroller people. If they can't knock you down with the stroller, maybe their kid can sneak by you and trip you with the leash.

 

Seriously, those leashes are pretty bad in heavy crowds.

[Louise]

Every time I was taken to a theme park as a kid, we went through a "ritual". This ritual concluded with my parents stopping at Guest Relations on the way into any given park and explaining "if we get separated, this is where you need to go to find us. If you dont know where this is, ask the nearest employee and he/she will help you." It became such a ritual, that I remember it vividly to this day.

 

 

 

All I'm saying is, it's important to take preemtive action in situations like this, such as informing your child what to do in these cases.

 

My family did the same thing. And it didn't just apply to theme parks, it was the same thing anywhere major, such as huge shopping malls, where I did once get lost... I was always shown a particular place to find my way to if I got lost, and told that if I didn't know how to get to that place, I should find somebody who worked at the mall/park, explain to them that I was lost, and tell them my name, my parents' names, and that they had arranged to meet me at X location if I got lost. It only happened once, when I was 5, and I vividly remember looking at a shopping centre map but not being able to figure it out. I looked for a police officer and couldn't find one, so I looked for a familiar store: WHSmiths, where my Dad used to take me every week to buy magazines. The employee there took me to Security, who put out a PA message for my parents, who then met me (panicked by this point) at the pre-arranged location.

 

They were freaked out, but they at least knew that as long as I HAD merely wandered off, and hadn't been taken, that I knew to tell a responsible safe adult and to find my way to meet them. Of course, if I had been taken (which I'm assuming was the point of the original posters' letter), this plan wouldn't be much help, but it does eliminate the problems like yours ACTUALLY turned out to be, which is that your child wandered off from you. At the end of the day, your child can be taken from their bed at night, ripped from your arms on the street... It's horrible to think about, but these things happen, and the world can't shut down just on the off-chance that a child may have been abducted rather than just fulfilling their human need to explore.

 

I see this kind of thing as the same as terrorism and crime. You can't put 8000 obsessively detailed security plans into action every time a parent loses sight of their child. But at the same time, you don't take unnecessary risks, you DO watch your children, and you don't bitch at Six Flags when your child wanders off from you in one of their parks and they don't perform a complete lockdown. As somebody else said, that's the equivalent of your child ripping their hand free from yours and running into traffic, and you then blaming the council for not having six foot tall brick walls along the edge of the sidewalk.

 

It DOES scare me that not all employees have radios though... That's very surprising to me, especially seeing as 99% of stores, ALL security and customer service employees, and even the refuse collectors and walkabout staff ALL have radios and communication devices even in my local shopping centre.

[Wes]

Can we put muzzles on kids too? I'm all for treating children like animals.

[FlyingScooter]

I'm probably wrong for saying this, but don't parks have signs that say: Not responsible for lost or stolen articles. (yeah, i know we're talking about a little kid here, but it's the parents responsibility to watch them in the first place.)

 

About leashes: I've wondered how those can be legal in the first place. From what I've seen with them, they're strangulation devices in waiting. Tie a rope around your kids neck or torso, you'll find yourself in court.

[Guest]

I can't say that I haven't used a harness for my kid, because I have. The only reason I did, A- was because he would wonder off and with him having a disability and not understanding what to do in that kind of situation I only used it in places he did not know, nor I. Matt also likes to dart into unsafe places. Mine was only used as a safety precaution not to restrain.

 

B-Matt actually picked out his harness. It's a monkey backpack that he named George and he would NEVER go anywhere with out his pet monkey George. When Matt was old enough, he wore his backpack without the "tail" attached. Never once did I pull on it. It had a good 3 feet where he could wander in my eyesight, but knew he couldn't go farther.

 

I also used one while I was in the airport. I don't know about single parents, but I tell you what, when you have to carry a backpack, two suitcases and a car seat plus keep an eye on your kid, you just can't do it. Once I was able to get rid of the suitcases, I still had to carry a car seat, my back pack, his back pack (cause he was tired of carrying it at this point) and a drink. He needed it on and I sure as hell used it.

 

Like I said, mine wasn't used for convenience it was used for safety.

[ginzo]

Can we put muzzles on kids too? I'm all for treating children like animals.

 

What about cages? If I can put my wife into a cage, I can put kids there as well.