At Brainerd High on Thursday, Hannah Merrell, 17, fake dialed 911 and pretended to be a mother panicking about her 4-year-old being locked in the bathroom.
Across the room, 17-year-old Raquel Butts took the call, building a card to provide information to another student acting as a dispatcher and talking Merrell through potential ways to unlock the door before emergency services arrived.
The Brainerd High seniors were using a 911 simulator as part of a new class that trains students to become 911 dispatchers.
“You never know what you’re gonna get,” Butts said in an interview. “It’s exciting. Sometimes it’s scary. Even though you know you’re doing it with your friends, when you really sit there and you start trying to focus, it just feels real.”
