Counselor Diane Lyon runs the program at the Fletcher School in Charlotte, where all third-graders participate. She said a recent study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows the techniques work.

“When there is an attempted abduction, if a child is able to scream or kick, 83 percent of the time they are able to escape,” she said.

Jack Framm, 10, took the course last year and he said it helped him feel safer.

“When you saw me hitting, I was trying to hit hard because I was thinking about someone really trying to hurt me,” he said.

Children who've been taught not to talk to strangers learn a different approach in the class. Lyon said research shows if more abducted children talked to strangers, they could have been saved.

"In a lot of those cases, there were opportunities for those children to seek help from people they didn't know. But because they were taught not to talk to strangers, oftentimes they didn't reach out for help,” she said.

“We're trying to teach children now that some strangers are good strangers, and most strangers are good strangers. We just need to learn to recognize the difference between good people and bad people,” Lyon said.

After drills and repetition, the students said, self defense becomes second nature.

"The drills teach you what to do in a situation that probably won't happen, but if it does, you know what to do,” Framm said.

Lyon said that speaks to the radKIDS program goal: not to make children feel anxious or fearful, but empowered.

"I know there are reported cases of children who've participated in radKIDS who have been able to get away because they have been prepared, because they knew what to do,” she said.

For more information on radKIDS, click here.