Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Christie Sims, Emergency Services Dispatcher for Tompkins County New York, has been kind enough to answer some of my questions regarding 911.  Since this blog is dedicated to parenting I think there is nothing more relevant to parenting than teaching kids how to handle an emergency.  911 is a number with which every American child should be familiar.  But, more than simply having the ability to dial a number, kids should be practiced and confident in making that call when necessary.  Christie mentioned a few things here that I have never thought about.  We can speculate all day long, from a parenting perspective, about what we should teach our kids about 911.  But, isn’t it better to actually have an interview from the source?  If you are one of my fine readers from another country, these points should all still be valid with the only difference being your country’s emergency number.    

At what age is it reasonable to teach a child to dial 911?   

I would say it’s reasonable to teach a child how to call 911 at age 3 or 4. Anyone younger really doesn’t grasp the concept of emergencies and may get confused easily.  

911 is an easy number to remember, but are there recommendations about how to teach it without, obviously, actually dialing it in a non-emergency situation?   

Once a child has learned the numbers and the concepts of dialing a phone number, I would recommend a laminated card be made up and reviewed with the child, then placed in easy viewing near most of the phones in the residence so that they are aware of emergency contact numbers. One of my worst calls came from a 7 yr old who dialed the non-emergency number for the police dept. because his mom had placed a bright orange sticker next to the phone.  

Are there ancillary questions that parents should teach their children to answer, questions that a 911 operator would want to know but that might stump a kid if he wasn’t prepared? Also, do cell phones make it harder on dispatchers to locate people?   

Parents should always teach their children the home address, including city or town, as many counties have multiples of road names, such as Main St, South St, etc. Teaching them a phone number associated with the home, if there is one, is great as many people just know cell numbers and some counties don’t have the locator capabilities yet for cell numbers. I would also recommend teaching kids their parents’ names as we are sometimes able to track residences using those names.  

If a child is dialing 911 then it must be a pretty serious circumstance. Do operators have special training in talking to kids, or is that something they learn on the job?   

Dispatchers are trained on how to handle young callers during basic training. Many times, teaching a child to stay calm during an emergency is the best advice parents can give. We all know though that kids tend to panic when Mom or Dad may get sick or start acting funny so the more information they can provide a dispatcher with, the better. I tend to lower my voice when talking with a child, but I am not patronizing to them. I tell them they are doing a great job in talking to me, and reassure them constantly that we are sending help to them.  

It’s a parent’s responsibility to teach kids what is and what is not an emergency, but kids sometimes have a hard time assigning relative urgency to, say, a lost toy. I’ve heard of adults who call 911 over a screwed up fast food order. How much patience is there for those kinds of calls? Do kids get more leeway?   

Our most frequent calls from children are when they are given an old cell phone to play with. The most important thing that I recommend parents do is to take the batteries out of a cell phone when it is no longer being used. Any cell phone that still has an active battery is able to call 911 for an emergency.  Also, if you are a parent and realize that your child has indeed dialed 911 by accident, please stay on the phone to tell the dispatcher that it was your child playing and not an emergency situation. It is the policy of our 911 Center that we must send law enforcement on any/all 911 hang-up calls. If it is an accidental dial, by staying on the phone or calling 911 back to speak to the dispatcher, we are able to verify that it was accidental, and this will change the response by law enforcement.  

     

Obviously, people have their own definitions of what an emergency is. It is NOT an emergency if your fast food order was goofed up, or if your child lost their toy in the house. Calls such as these take away valuable time should a real life-threatening emergency arise. Please also keep in mind that many firefighters and ambulance companies are manned by volunteers, and they are not always in close proximity to the station so their response time may not be as fast as you expect. The same applies to police officers. What you consider to be an emergency may not actually be one. If you have gotten into an argument with your neighbor and your neighbor has returned to his residence, I would not classify that as an emergency unless a weapon or reference to a weapon or something similar in severity has occurred.  

Have you ever gotten a call from a kid?  Is it rare for kids to call 911 or does it happen with some frequency?   

One of the worst calls I’ve ever handled was from a 7 yr old boy who called my non emergency number to tell me that Daddy was hurting Mommy. I’ll never know what made me stay on the phone line that night after hearing silence when I first took the call, but I can tell you that it still gives me chills thinking about that little boy & his bravery. His father is now serving 20 years in prison for attempted murder.  

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