Now we know the rest of the story.

It turns out an incident at Neveln Elementary School last week that prompted Austin police to urge parents to talk to their children about not approaching strangers came about after a teacher tried to discipline children making lewd gestures at passing cars.

According to the Austin Police Department’s initial report, some students were outside Neveln after school hours on June 1 when an older brown or tan car pulled over to the side of the road. The driver, a white male with short brown hair wearing a yellow shirt, told one of the children to come over to the car. The child did not know the man and did not go over. The driver then said, “Come here or I’ll make you run laps. I’m a teacher.” The children went inside and the man left. One of the children reported the incident to his mother.

According to Police Chief Brian Krueger, the police received a call from the teacher that was driving the vehicle.

The teacher informed police that he was visiting a friend that lived near Neveln Elementary School when he observed the group of children making obscene gestures and shouting lewd comments at passing vehicles. He observed this for five minutes before all but one child went inside.

The teacher said that when he left, he saw the lone student continuing to make inappropriate gestures, so he pulled his car over to talk to the student. He identified himself as a teacher and told the student that if he saw someone from his class acting that way, he would make him or her run laps. He told the student that acting that way could be unsafe and asked if the student understood. The student gave a thumb up and the teacher left.

Police also received an email from a woman who witnessed the incident that confirmed the teacher’s story.

Although the child was in no danger during Thursday’s incident, police still urge parents to talk to their children about not approaching people or cars they don’t know, especially with schools being out for the summer.