Some loitered to gossip, others began the walk home, the walk to the bus stop, the walk to their parents waiting in cars in the street.

It might have been an afternoon like any other if it wasn’t for a menacing and calculated attack that occurred at almost the same time just two days earlier.

That was also an afternoon like any other for a 15-year-old Wodonga girl who was the victim of an attempted abduction as she walked home from school on the same route she took everyday.

Yesterday mothers who were picking up their teenagers at one Wodonga school described the attack as “scary”.

“It’s very scary, you should be able to let your 15-year-old walk to and from school,” Jackie Holmes said.

Katrina Coleman was parked on Woodland Street waiting for her 16-year-old Felicity, a Year 11 student at Wodonga Senior Secondary College.

“I don’t let her walk anywhere as it is,” Mrs Coleman said.

“You can’t trust anyone really. I always told them if someone says hi to you, say hi back but keep walking.”

But what if their child found themselves in the situation of the Wodonga schoolgirl who tried to do the right thing by stopping to help someone in need?

“My kids have been taught that way too, that if you see someone in that predicament, you help,” Mrs Coleman said.

“They’ve made it worse for everyone else who genuinely needs help.”

Felicity slipped into the front seat of her mother’s car, a questioning look on her face.

She said the scary incident had reinforced why she was safety- conscious.

“I don’t walk around by myself — I’m always with friends,” she said.

Although it’s believed the schoolgirl who was the target came from another school, Wodonga Senior Secondary College assistant principal Cassandra Walters said all Wodonga schools would have staff speaking with students and parents about what had happened.

She said letters had been sent home with students, counsellors were available and conversations about safety had begun.

“It has really brought it home,” she said.

“I’m from Melbourne — I moved to Wodonga 13 years ago.

“I thought ‘we’re in the country, this sort of thing doesn’t happen here’,” Ms Walters said.

“It can happen anywhere.”