Marion County youngsters trained to use 911 years ago
Dialing 911 in an emergency isn't as simple as it seems, particularly with young children who may be shy or unfamiliar with using a telephone.
Marion County Communications Department, which provides dispatch services to emergency responders in the county, hopes to make 911 use easier for little ones.
The department held its first training session Jan. 23 at Valley United Methodist Church preschool. The program is designed for kindergartners but seemed popular with the preschoolers.
Dispatchers Marvena Cheever and Linda Kinney used an entertaining video and handouts developed by national emergency communication groups.
The video features the puppet Red E. Fox, the 911 mascot.
After the video, each child made a pretend call with the dispatcher. The phones were not plugged in. Since officers are to respond to every 911 call, practicing on a working phone with on-duty dispatchers is wrong, they emphasized.
Children were told to pick up the phone, wait for the dial tone, dial the three-digit number, then wait until a dispatcher came on the line.
In Marion County, the enhanced 911 system is supposed to bring up the address from which the call is made (though this isn't possible with cell phones). However, anyone calling still must be prepared to give their name, telephone number, and address, in case the system isn't working.
Some of the children nodded in response to dispatcher's questions, a problem so common it was featured on the video. Children have to hold the phone close to their mouths and speak slowly and clearly.
When a dispatcher asked "where do you live?" not all the children knew their addresses. One, who had moved recently, gave his former town as his home.
And one reported that he lived "with my dogs."
If children don't know their address, dispatchers often will ask for a father or mother's name.
It isn't uncommon even for adults to forget their names or addresses in an emergency, so dispatchers advise people to keep such information posted by the phone.
The video and dispatchers emphasized that 911 is to be used only "in people emergencies." Calling 911 to report a cat up a tree means someone else may not be able to get through.
Groups wanting to schedule a 911 presentation should use the non-emergency number, 620-382-2144.
