Students in Briana Curry’s first-grade class at McKinley Elementary weren’t overly sure of themselves when they made practice emergency 911 calls Monday afternoon.
Not to worry, said Jody Mader, a dispatcher in her second year of tutoring grade school students in how and when to call 911.
“You did fine,” she told one little girl whose shyness came through when she barely spoke into a telephone receiver used in the practice session.
Mader allowed that exposure to the process was important and might make a huge difference if the girl, or one of the other students, was in a position sometime later to help avert tragedy by calling 911. At least then the experience wouldn’t be completely foreign and with coaxing of dispatchers — Carmen Huse had the role Monday in the practice sessions — information could be gleaned to get emergency responders to a scene quickly.
Dispatchers from Allen County’s Emergency Response Center began their second year of giving elementary students — kindergarten through third grade — hands-on experience with 911 calls last week at Marmaton Valley Elementary in Moran. Yesterday and today they visited McKinley. In the weeks ahead they will talk with students at Humboldt Elementary Charter School and Jefferson and Lincoln elementary schools in Iola.
The program is a little more refined this year, with large posters that tell students precisely what to do and how to do it to get help “if mom or dad won’t wake up, a stranger tries to entice you with candy or a fire or wreck occurs,” Mader noted.
A cartoon video captivated the McKinley first graders, putting 911 procedures in terms they’re used to from television exposure.
“WE ENCOURAGE them to know their address and telephone number,” Mader said, as well as their full name. If they don’t know their address, a landmark — a church, school building or another public building — that’s nearby is helpful, the students were told.
She told the youngsters to “speak slowly, loud and clear,” when giving information to a dispatcher, all trained to ask leading questions that are helpful in eliciting information from children. “Answer the questions the dispatcher asks you, and it’s OK to say you don’t know an answer.
“Tell us what happened, and don’t hang up until the dispatcher tells you to,” Mader said.
The children also were given a number of “what-ifs,” some that were descriptions of emergencies and others, such as a cat refusing to come down out of a tree, that weren’t.
“The cat eventually will come down,” Mader said. “That’s not an emergency that you need to call 911 about.”
But, she added, if a “dog bites you, that’s an emergency involving an animal. If you’re not sure whether you need to call 911 or not, go ahead and call to be on the safe side.”
Don’t ever call 911 for fun, she added, noting that when dispatchers are busy dealing with emergencies a call made by a child “playing around with the phone” could mean response to an emergency doesn’t occur as quickly as it should.
