Keeping children safe through songs

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dischord

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Posted on Thu, Mar. 25, 2004

Keeping children safe through songs

A woman uses the three Rs -- Rhyme, Rhythm and Rap -- to teach young children about important safety issues.

BY CARLI TEPROFF
Miami Herald
[email protected]


Twelve-year-old Rhiannon Martinez can often be caught repeating the words to one of her favorite songs.

It's not the latest tune by Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake, but an original work by a Northeast Miami-Dade woman concerning, of all things, gun control.

With lines like, ''You must remember guns are not for fun, 'cause a touch of a trigger can kill someone,'' Sylvia Ozner Segal's The Gun Control Safe Song is one of three tunes she has written for her Safe Songs 4 Kids child protection program, a series of educational ditties meant to teach children how to deal with heavy subjects.

Each song -- the other two Safe Songs concern fire safety, and child abuse and abduction -- is part of a package that includes a CD and audiotape version of the song, plus a 28-minute video that includes children singing and dancing to the song and a skit and a teaching guide.

The packages range from $29.99 to $85.95, and are primarily marketed to groups such as schools, churches and police departments.

Segal, who has been writing songs professionally since the 1950s, and uses what she calls the three ''R's'' -- Rhyme, Rhythm and Rap -- wrote her first safe song about 10 years ago after her son challenged her to use her lyric-writing ability to create a song that would teach children about heavy subjects.

''At first, I liked the challenge,'' she said, ``but once I realized how important it was for children to learn about these things, I was hooked.''

For her first effort, The Child Abuse/Abduction Safe Song, Segal wanted the message to be strong, yet nonthreatening. She wanted children to know that they had to tell someone that they trust if they were touched inappropriately.

Segal said she believes that children ''close their ears'' when adults try to talk to them about tough subjects. But she thought songs would be a good vehicle for the messages.

''Music stays in a child's mind,'' Segal said. ``You can teach children as young as 3 songs that they will always remember.''

Her lyrics in the Child Abuse/Abduction Safe Song tell them to protect themselves with a ``great big shout and great big no.''

For vocals, she had her two grandchildren, 7 and 9 at the time, get a group of friends together to record the lyrics as a rap. That's how Rhiannon came to know the song, as a performer in the Gun Control video.

While in the recording studio, Segal met Amiel Moskona, a local lyric and music writer. Segal said Moskona loved the lyrics and said he wanted to add music. They then recorded it as a song.

It took about three years for Segal to complete the project, including the video and all the ancillary materials. Moskona assisted her with the project, then decided to pursue his own career in music.

Segal, however, did not give up the project. Her next Safe Song, on gun safety, was completed last year.

Segal is still working on the video for the latest project, The Fire Safe Song, and expects to have it completed by the end of the year.

In the meantime, she has picked up some important fans. The North Miami Beach City Council recently recognized Segal's Gun Control Safe Song with a proclamation. Tom Carney, who oversees crime prevention programs for the North Miami Beach police department, took copies to a meeting the National Crime Prevention Coalition Executive Committee that was held last month in Washington, D.C., in hopes that other jurisdictions will adopt the program.

''[Segal] has dedicated her time and expertise into a crime-prevention effort that should be incorporated into all schools,'' Carney said. ``We plan on doing whatever we can to help get the program out nationally.''

Segal has set up a website for program sales, but most of her sales are by word of mouth. Segal says she has spent about $30,000 of her retirement funds to produce the programs, but noted, ``If my work can save just one child, then it is worth all the time and money that I have put into the projects.''

''It is a driving force,'' she added. ``I felt that it was important for me to use my talents in music to keep children safe.''

Segal has plans to tackle issues such as drugs and alcohol, cigarettes, teenage pregnancy and temper control.

For information, call 305-653-5321 or visit www.safesongs.com.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiheral...i-dade/cities_neighborhoods/north/8261641.htm
 
From her website
Will Your Child Fall Victim To A
SEXUAL PREDATOR, GUN
or FIRE ACCIDENT
Some Other Frightening Disaster?
Are You Aware?

That a growing number of children are shot or killed through gun accidents. FALSE ADVERTISING ALERT!
gun150.gif
 
I love the children holding up "peace signs" in that posters.

How, post 9/11, the leftists can still hope that really, really really, wanting a "post-national world of peace, brotherhood, and love" will make it happen is beyond me.:rolleyes:
 
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