With Monday’s kidnapping incident in Webster County, it is important for parents and children to remember to be safe as the school year winds down and summer break gets closer.

Greene County Sheriff Steve Haupert urges parents to talk to children about being safe while walking home from school and even more importantly during the summer.

As kids are walking home from school or going anywhere outside, Sheriff Haupert wants to remind them to walk in groups and don’t approach someone in a vehicle that you don’t know.  He says that as rural communities in Greene County, it’s all of our responsibilities to report something suspicious to keep children safe from harm.

“Our best, precious commodity is our youth and we need to protect them in anyway that we can.  And for them to be taught that there is, unfortunately in our society, there is danger out there for them.  We just need to be ever vigilant.”

Sheriff Haupert adds that if anyone sees something suspicious or out of the ordinary to contact the Law Enforcement Center in Jefferson at 386-2136.