Learning about 911 calls: 'A friend at the other end'

By JOHN STANG/Daily Inter Lake

Red E. Fox - a person in a two-legged critter suit - sang and danced on the DVD presentation projected on a screen.

"I gotta find some heroes for 911, and I want you kids to help me," he spoke to about 50 Hedges Elementary School first-graders on Thursday.

Red E. Fox had two talking assistants - a push-button phone named "Buttons" and a rotary-dial phone named "Whirly," with bushy white eyebrows and mustache.

"The great thing about 911 is you have to remember only three numbers in an emergency," Red E. Fox said.

The DVD characters and two real-life Flathead County 911 dispatchers - Tim Tepas and Sherry Reid - talked to the first-graders about 911:

n Dial it for a fire or break-in or accident.

n When in doubt, dial 911.

n Be calm when talking to a 911 dispatcher.

n Don't hang up.

n Tell the 911 dispatcher your address and phone number.

"How many of you know your address?" Tepas asked. Most children raised their hands.

There was advice, too, about times when calling 911 is not such a good idea.

For example, don't call 911 if you see a cat in a tree. "No one has ever seen a cat skeleton up a tree," Tepas said.

Reid inquired: "If you're fighting with your brother or sister, is that a good time to call 911?"

"No," the kids chorused.

Reid said: "That's probably a good time to talk to your parents."

More 911 advice was drilled over and over into the youngsters' minds.

"Yeaaah's" and "No's" rang out as the youths were quizzed about when to dial 911 and when not to.

This is the first year that Flathead County Sheriff's Office dispatchers are going from school to school to talk to first-graders - hoping to make this an annual occurrence at every Flathead County school.

A half-dozen schools are done so far, with perhaps 30 more to go.

First-graders are targeted because that is the age when most children learn their phone numbers and addresses.

The nonprofit Flathead 911 Foundation provides money for 911 stickers, pencils and activity sheets for students. Dispatchers conduct the classes on their own time.

Red E. Fox did find his 911 heroes on the DVD screen: They were young kids. A dispatcher on the DVD screen spoke directly to the Hedges first-graders: "Kids, I hope you never have to use 911. But if you do, you have a friend on the other end."