Apparent Kidnap Attempts Put Parents on Guard--and on Edge : Safety: Adults in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach try to warn their children without whipping up hysteria.

In her mind, Debbie Shaffer can hear the final bell ringing at Hermosa Valley School and see her 11-year-old daughter, Michelle, starting the long walk home.

At the office where she works as an executive secretary, the young mother fidgets and watches the clock for the next half-hour, the time it takes for the little blonde girl to phone and say she has reached home--safely.

Only then will Shaffer relax.

It’s been that way for many parents in Hermosa Beach and neighboring Manhattan Beach since the first in a string of four apparent kidnaping attempts against schoolchildren was reported March 8.

While unnerved by reports that a man in a pickup truck has approached youngsters in the communities, adults said they are relieved that years of training paid off and that all four children ran from the stranger.

Fears of child abuse are nothing new in the two beach cities, where residents have lived for years with the legacy of the McMartin Pre-School molestation case. Several of the “McMartin kids,” as they are known, attend Hermosa Valley School.

“The McMartin situation has pretty well sobered everyone to what can happen, even in a small community,” said Richard Halliburton as he dropped his daughter off at Hermosa Valley School, where gates were locked Thursday to prevent strangers from coming onto campus.

A long line of cars dropped children off at the school Thursday morning. More parents have been escorting their children to campus in the past week, school officials said.

A boy in a fluorescent surfing-style T-shirt and a girl lugging a book bag half her size nodded in silent agreement as their parents explained that they had warned their children to be increasingly wary of strangers.

“It’s important to alert them without unduly alarming them about the danger,” said one father.

Shaffer said she had moved to Hermosa Beach three years ago to escape the gangs and drugs she feared her children might have encountered in Lawndale schools. “I wanted to get the kids in a good community and a good school, and then this happens,” she said. “It makes me real nervous.”

She said she has come to realize that Hermosa Beach is not immune to the world’s problems--despite the illusion of insulation held out by high home prices, sea breezes and the easy beach life style.

“Things do happen in nice neighborhoods,” said another mother. “We are not exempt.”

Children at Hermosa Valley School discuss “stranger danger” and other social concerns at least once a week , said Shalee Cunningham, superintendent of the one-campus Hermosa Beach City School District.

The four children approached since March 8 apparently learned their lessons well.

The incidents began that day when an 8-year-old walking home from Pacific Elementary School in Manhattan Beach was approached by a man in a white pickup truck. Over the next six days three more children--two from Hermosa Valley School and one from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach--were approached by strangers in either a red or white pickup. All four children ran before the stranger could get close to them.

Since each offered a slightly different description, police said they do not know whether they are looking for more than one man.

Dozens of phone calls with possible leads have poured in to the police. Plainclothes officers in both seaside cities are making special patrols around the schools.

“Anyone in a red or white pickup gets a lot of attention,” said Anthony Cotton, a crossing guard.

Hermosa Valley School has taken an added precaution by locking two gates at the back of the campus that used to be open so residents could walk to and from the beach. Cunningham said the open-campus policy made it too difficult to distinguish legitimate visitors from those who might threaten children.

Several parents said they are wary of the television news crews and reporters who have visited the community in the past week. They said the media, in the wake of McMartin, has unfairly painted the South Bay as an area possessed by hysteria over child molestation.

“The press portrayed us as being hysterical,” said one mother, who asked not to be named. “We don’t want that to happen again. These are serious incidents.”