IN THE CLASSROOM:

“Don’t talk to strangers” was pretty easy. “Don’t open the door if your parents aren’t at home” was just as elementary.

But for some of the third-graders at Kaiser Elementary, phone etiquette was a little more complicated.

“If someone calls and asks for your mom when she’s not there, what do you say?” asked Kelly Vucinic, a crime prevention specialist for the Costa Mesa Police Department.

“I’m sorry, she’s not here right now,” a couple of students said in unison.

“Not quite,” she said.

“Never tell anyone you’re home alone. Try, ‘She can’t come to the phone right now.’ I’m telling the truth, because I don’t want you to lie, but I’ve not told them anything.”

The moment was one of a few tips kids didn’t expect in Vucinic’s annual lecture to third-graders on staying safe and preventing crime.

Throughout the city, her department offers such lectures to classes that can range from preschool age to middle school. Last week, she was talking to third-grade classes two by two.

Vucinic tailors her material to the age group, she said. While preschoolers might get little more than a reminder that police are there to help, older kids get warnings about their online activities and what to do if someone tries to carry them off.

Warning kids not to get too scared that they might get snatched by someone, Vucinic said it was “like an earthquake: You want to be prepared in the unlikely event that it happens.”

If they do, she said, it was a lot better to yell, “Help!” or “You’re not my mom!” than “No!”

“If I hear a kid saying to an adult, ‘No!’ I’m going to think he’s maybe just acting up,” she added.

Asked later whether talking about safety was scary for her, 9-year-old Bri Edwards said she wasn’t nervous.

“I don’t get scared,” she said. “I just think about it.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].