Sitting around images projected on the white walls of Allen Fieldhouse, the students heard lessons – basic and essential.

Not lessons of pick-and-rolls or foul shots. Lessons of drugs and strangers.

“We just want to give them a positive message in a positive place,” said Greg Skelton, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent.

The program Hawks, Cops and Kids on Saturday brought Lawrence-area students to Allen Fieldhouse and the neighboring Anschutz Pavilion on the Kansas University campus to hear words of wisdom from local law enforcement officers and KU athletes.

Youngsters from third to eighth grades learned about avoiding drugs, strangers and shady Internet situations from law enforcement officers from around the state.

Officers from the KBI, Kansas Highway Patrol, Lawrence Police and other departments reached out as regular people, not imposing officers, KU Public Safety Capt. Schuyler Bailey said.

“We’re very approachable,” Bailey said. “There are no badges, no guns.”

KU Public Safety was host to the event, along with KU Athletics and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Douglas County.

The students also got a chance to shoot hoops on James Naismith Court with basketball players from the KU men’s and women’s teams. Children also got to toss footballs and take putting practice on the indoor field at Anschutz.

The Hawks, Cops and Kids program, now in its third year, originated with a similar event in Wichita, called Shocks, Cops and Kids.

“The idea traveled through Big Brothers Big Sisters up here,” Bailey said. “And we picked it up.”

In the fieldhouse hallway, KU Public Safety Sgt. James Anguiano told a group of older children that the need to avoid strangers still applied even as you grew up.

“As you get older, nothing changes,” Anguiano said.

His students nodded in approval and told stories of how they’ve avoided talking to strangers in the past.

Back at Skelton’s drug talk, students’ questions exposed their knowledge of drug culture, even at a young age.

Some kids talked about other students they knew using pain killers or performance-enhancing drugs.

Preston Jones, a Tonganoxie Junior High student, talked about students who got caught recently dealing drugs at their school.

Skelton said that was why these kinds of seminars were so important: to give youngsters the facts about the dangers of drugs, rather than rumors that peers can feed them.

“I think it’s very typical of public schools, all schools,” Skelton said about the youths’ understanding of drugs. “Kids know what’s going on.”