Morgan County elementary students ready to deal with predators

Fifth-grade students from Teresa Courter's class use their radKIDS' skills to demonstrate how they could get away from an attacker during a radKIDS graduation.
Fifth-grade students from Teresa Courter's class use their radKIDS' skills to demonstrate how they could get away from an attacker during a radKIDS graduation.

They may be small, but Morgan County radKIDS revealed just how tough they can be if put in a compromising situation.

About 150 Morgan County R-2 Elementary students recently graduated from the radKIDS program. At their graduation, Lt. Mike Nienhuis, field operations supervisor of the Morgan County Sheriff's Office, pretended to be a stranger and each student got to use their radKIDS' skills to demonstrate how they could get away from him.

Wearing a padded "red man suit" tailored just for him, Nienhuis literally took a beating all last week as graduation was held each day in the program he implemented.

"I love graduation," said Nienhuis. "You see the kids come out of their shell and stick up for themselves. Even though I am the one taking the abuse, it's a great feeling to watch that."