Help Line

 A first grade girl called 911 from a phone in a classroom of her after school program at our school. It wasn't a freak accident, but rather entirely reminiscent of all the times that boys and girls had used one of the school's phones to dial the number they have heard about since they were tiny. 

What would happen?

Well, on this particular day, her little friends ratted her out almost immediately in addition to the internal response call we get in the office when an emergency is called in from one of our extensions. She was not going to get away with it, and it was then up to us to let her know what a potentially bad thing it was that she had been messing with a system put in place to keep her safe. 

Then came the abrupt left turn when, upon interviewing her, she tearfully explained why it was that she had made the call. "I wanted my mommy to be safe," she sobbed. She explained that over the Thanksgiving break there had been trouble at her house, with her older teenaged sister attacking their mom. "I wanted someone to help." 

Suddenly the adults involved switched their tone and became infinitely more sympathetic. We rallied around her and assured her that she only needed to reach out to one of us to get her the help she and her mom needed. The incident she described was not out of character for her family, and the decision was made almost immediately to trust the child. 

Right up until mom was called to let her in on what had been happening at the school. She rushed down to pick up her daughter, and on the way in stopped to let us all know that she was sorry for the large but totally believable fabrication. Her teenaged daughter had not been living with them for the past several weeks. The building blocks were certainly there, with trauma inflicted on everyone involved. 

Several weeks ago. 

Then the path switched quickly back to the first grader mimicking the funny thing she had seen her classmates do several months ago. On a dare. We left mom and daughter with the stern reminder that 911 was for emergencies only and we were there to help but making that call was something else. 

Then they left. 

A few minutes later, my principal and I wondered together if we still knew the complete story. Would mom smooth things over for appearances and maybe daughter felt threatened still and was making some sort of desperate call. For help. 

We couldn't be sure. But we will keep our collective eyes and ears open.