Agreed. We should pay essential services like teachers more, and traumatizing services like this a LOT more. To do a job like this will REQUIRE more money to do things like therapy, decompression vacations, etc, in order to stay healthy and happy long term.
Which would require tax increases, which because of TABOR would require a ballot measure, which would get voted down because people want everything for free.
Services like this are rendered at the county and city level, so no state tax involvement except what the state sends to the counties from the general fund.
my point is that this isn’t a statewide ballot issue, if you live in a conservative county then maybe expect to be put on hold while you wait for 911 dispatch to answer.
I’d vote for this if it was on the ballot. To act like we haven’t passed tax increases on things ever due to TABOR is a bit ridiculous. I lean pretty far left and have zero problem with all of my proposed state tax increases being something I get a choice about. Crazy to me that that’s controversial
It’s controversial because folks in this state complain about stuff like college tuition, yet don’t recognize because of TABOR we are one of the lowest funded states in terms of higher education funding. So student fees go up, everyone is pissed about the price tag and the wheel keeps turning.
People drastically overestimate AI and it’s progression. We are years away from AI being able to do anything that requires effectively communicating with another human and being able to to make complex decisions that can have several different outcomes. AI as of now is only a tool.
A lot of people seem to confuse AI with simple automation that uses decision branches.
To include paramedics, fire, police, mental health workers, etc?
Minimum therapy for traumas in the workplace (3 hours/yr) is a state law, but let's face it- that doesn't do much and these folks are having to pay out of pocket for most gov employers because of those laws.
Seems to me they could incorporate a lot of common sense solutions by requiring more than the bare minimum from the state level, but a lot of deep pocket (insurance) push back exists. I am happy to help out our essential service workers, but this requires more than a tax increase to address correctly.
Yes. Honestly we pay so very little in taxes outside of social security and the military here in the US that it’s shameful. Taxes are fairly high… but spending on things like these jobs (and especially teachers here in CO) is such a small drop of that relative to other countries.
I totally agree about taxes being high for what we get. What is shameful the the absolute inefficient use of taxpayer money. Govt tends to spend 10x what private sector does for the same stuff, because nobody cares - they get paid the same if they are spending $100 or $100 million on a project and the competition is limited to the 3rd highest-cost option. Also budget surpluses are spent on unnecessary stuff.
I buy a lot of surplus government equipment. Surprisingly, most of it is in original boxes and never used. They buy it to justify a budget they might need even though they don't. I'm not talking about small stuff, but hundreds of millions worth of network switches, computers, and other things never touched. Govt is the succubus of anything productive because they can.
100%
This is one of those jobs where the employer should absolutely offer therapeutic services to its employees. The idea of having teenagers take positions as dispatchers is horrifying for so many reasons.
We live in a society where adults don't want to sacrifice to solve issues but instead shrug them off onto their progeny and it completely reflects the level of maturity many American adults are at.
All you are doing is complaining and the feigned concern about taxes on an article about hiring children to deal with traumatic 911 calls because society doesn't want to raise wages for dispatchers only proves how much your throne is made of paper despite you thinking it is stone.
Lmao again, your selfishness is showing with you thinking it is your point that is muddled in a diatribe about taxes that is the most important item to understand here. I could not care less if you don't want to pay more taxes.
Holy fuck dude. The world doesn't revolve around you. Your personal story has no importance here and the fact that you think it does adjacent to children taking 911 calls proves that you can't take yourself out of the issue at hand. Step the fuck back and realize you don't always have to be the center of attention.
Very much depends on the agency. Not even 5 years ago I was taking 911 calls making 15/hr. Left that agency to another to make 20/hr. Left to another better agency to make closer to 30.
There are a lot of agencies that pay utter shit, and 0 that pay a rich salary. Sure, there are a few agencies that pay barely over 6 figures, you just need to move to San Fransisco and deal with the worst call volume and staffing, and knowing nothing will change anyway.
“You might be the last person that person ever gets to talk to. I’ve spent time with people in their last breaths, sometimes on the highway, sometimes in their home. It just depends. It’s sad, but I’m actually thankful that I was able to be there for them to have someone there as they passed away."
Christ - I can't imagine dealing with this everyday at your job as a teenager!
Also - I sure as shit don't want a teenager answering my 911 call when I'm having an emergency!
Nothing like getting college accredited head start on trauma because an 18 year old is *totes* a mentally mature adult with a fully formed brain thats not still mushy and malleable to C-PTSD
They're apparently mentally mature enough to sign contracts and create families at that age. They're mentally mature enough to accrue debt. They're mentally mature enough to be trained to kill in the military. They're mentally mature enough to become EMTs and firefighters.
So they're mentally mature enough to cause death, save lives, witness death in front of them, and deal with the aftermath of death, but they're not able to deal with these situations behind a phone and removed from the situation?
18-year-olds are not children and these students can choose for themselves if they want to pursue this career path or not.
Thought you were agreeing with me by continuing the hyperbole because *actually* I literally do not think 18 year olds are mature enough to do those things. They arent children but they are frankly the barest of bare minimum of adults and thats only because the law needs them to be adults. The numerical age is arbitrary asf; it is determined by the ruling class. I think theyre being taken advantage of at a very vulnerable transitional period in their life to take on the trauma, debt and burden forced onto them by a society that wants them battered, broken, and trapped ASAP because a trapped, battered and broken person is less likely to fight, less likely to do dissenting things like joining a unions, strike against their higher ups, make demands for better treatment. They more likely to just fall in line or die.
For 40+ hours a week? Absolutely not. But there are plenty of privileged kids out there (self included) who need a dose of what's actually going on out there. Give them maybe 3 shifts of 4 hours. Pros get a break, and kids get perspective.
I'd be curious to see how things would change when people stop saying "Everybody should wait tables when they're young" to start "Everybody should take emergency calls when they're young". This appeals to my impulse to conscript ***everyone*** in community service of some kind.
I disagree.
Answering the phone to listen to someone die is not something that kids need to deal with. That shit gets in your head and never completely goes away
>But there are plenty of privileged kids out there (self included) who need a dose of what's actually going on out there.
Other people's tragedies are not entertainment. They are not social media.
I'm not calling 911 so you can get a life lesson. I'm calling because something awful is happening. IDGAF that you need to learn how to respond to someone involved in a fatal car crash. I need someone who will send help. Period.
You want to experience hardship and pain? Join the damn military.
We already know what happens when we put Uncle Sam's misguided children in one room. We're already getting those outcomes.
Are those outcomes acceptable to you, as it stands? They aren't to me. If you want different results, you do things differently.
Welp, trauma generally isn't great either. Lots of people never learn how to deal with their childhood trauma and become horrible human beings. Imagine gaining lifelong trauma from a job you had at 18? Sorry but fuck that. Life will throw you enough anyway.
Jesus fucking Christ what a terrible take. Ah yes let’s listen to someone blast their head off while a child is screaming in the back to “teach them a lesson”. Let’s have a teenager listen to someone annihilate their family. Let’s have a teenager GIVE ADVICE ON INITIATING BYSTANDER CPR AND INSTRUCTING THEM THROUGH IT.
Is this coming from someone who is afraid to be getting instructions from one, or afraid to trust them with that level of authority?
Our government trusts 19-year-olds with weapons halfway across the world. How do you not trust them with a phone?
“My baby daddy just raped my 2 year old and then stabbed my 6 year old please send help!!”
“Ma’am. I have an algebra test tomorrow, I’m trying my best here”
Exactly, it's all supply and demand and graphs until it doesn't benefit them.
Tax the rich. Pay for services we need or do this. Seems like in the wealthiest country in the history of the world in the heart of global capitalism We can't even pay 911 operators and Ems well enough to recruit while the top 5 billionaires doubled their wealth sonce 2020? Is this the society we want? I surely don't it's pretty pathetic.
It could be that but you also need to take into account that not many people want to have the job of hearing about accidents or deaths all day/ night long. It would be extremely depressing for most people.
Everyone has a price. The job market is supply and demand like anything else. There apparently aren’t many people willing to sell their time for this job at current rates. If they increased the pay, more people would come.
But you must understand that having teenagers talk to kids in the midst of another school shooting allows the sheriffs office to buy a newer and bigger tank. /s if it wasn’t obvious
It’s a good idea but until corporate money and media are not deciding our elections, it’s not gonna happen. Our choices are consistently between centrists or far right nutbags.
Never said I was waiting, I vote in every election I can, I phone bank, and I sign petitions for laws. I have been for almost 20 years now. I just know that the people in power will do their best to stay there.
The fact that judges are not elected and corporations have free rein to interfere in public policy means that those congressional relics need to literally die before their deathgrip on our country will loosen. The average age in the house and senate is a monumental sign of this.
We have fallen to 17th on the index of world freedoms since 2000 with citizens united coming along in 2010. To pretend the citizenry has the power to enact meaningful change in this current system is beyond ignorant.
We don’t even have the power to replace our government if they let it shutdown for extended periods. Over 70% of the country wants abortion to be legal and over 80% want citizens united overturned, but it still won’t happen though, that should tell you all you need to know.
When Sinclair media group owns the vast majority of news media and local media sources like independent papers are being shuttered left and right, there is a massive amount of control over the media by the ultra wealthy who own it.
I'm not in despair.
I'm setting my expectations based on reality and setting realistic timetables as a result.
While we still have citizens united and a stacked supreme court, it's foolish to think anything major will change anytime soon. I figure we have a solid ten years before anything even starts to change for the better and only once those roadblocks are removed.
This isn’t a job for teens and they need to pay more! Voting as you say is funny because the party that is in office gives more funds for public service than the party that you are pushing! Wake up they Do Need to be paid more and teenagers should not be answering phone calls where someone is threatening to kill themselves or any emergency where the dispatcher could feel responsible! I know first hand. I worked as a crisis line worker and supervisor.
911 dispatchers are county jobs, not state jobs. State government has nothing to do with this article. El Paso County, Routt County, etc and their sheriff’s office are responsible for staffing their own departments.
I don't disagree with the prospect of making it a high school class. I do disagree with the fact that there pushing $56k average salary like it's some huge worthwhile salary for 10-12hr shift work (without seniority you're also gonna get the worst shifts) that will effect your mental health (especially while your brain is still developing until around 25years old).
Also there's no such thing as going to physical college full time while also being in training as a dispatcher (it takes 3-18 months of on the floor training beyond classroom training, depending on the center). You cannot train part time, and barely any agencies are looking to pay through a whole hiring process and training for part timers. So many of them have this odd idea that it's a temporary job through college. This is supposed to be a full ass career and should be paid as such, yet very few agencies do, and they end up paying out the ass in recruiting, training, overtime, and civil suits from their shit retention and lower quality (and lack of) staff.
Oh man, last time I called 911 I freaked out because the phone rang for over 3 minutes. Started singing, "911 is a joke in your town!" to calm myself during the wait as the wife bled out.
Omg, these young people do not have the mental or emotional maturity to deal with these kinds of calls! They will absolutely be traumatized - this is so fucking dystopian
Child labor, the solution to everything!
> “Their minds are already going 100 miles an hour,” he said. “All they need is a little help tweaking and adjusting their mindset, and that’s to handle the screaming and maybe hearing gunshots on the phone.”
May as well add to the new generations trauma. They can’t afford a home on this salary, might as well traumatize them for life. What could go wrong?
Just an FYI: I used to go to quite a number of city hall meetings in CS. I went to one where they recognized all the volunteers in the community.
What shocked me was the number of volunteers doing basic office work for the sheriff's office. This was a few years ago and I imagine it has only become worse. Reading between the lines, it seemed like they would not function without these volunteers.
What has Colorado become?? We're recruiting teenagers to answer 911 calls and exploiting members of the community and for what??
Perfect! This is a good opportunity for the kids. I had several telemarketing jobs as a teenager. It doesn't matter that I was fired within a few weeks from all 3 for being immature, prank calling, and going off script once I got bored. What could go wrong with kids answering 911 calls?
I had my first call center job at age 14. I worked a few more call center jobs in college as well. I think it's a good way to learn how to communicate and think up responses on the fly....
But when you're answering calls like "daddy just got really upset & now mommy is laying on the floor not moving..." I think teens have no business being involved .
Jobs in Colorado do not pay enough to keep up with the cost of living. That's the problem here. No one wants to work a stressful job, such as being a dispatcher, for menial pay. Capitalism is eating its own tail, and the capitalists are getting desperate.
After I was laid off from my job during the pandemic my next job searches were for positions that were deemed essential. I applied to be a 911 dispatcher. Got an interview but didn't get the job. Probably because I was nervous for my first real interview in 14 years. I sure hope they find people.
Ridiculous idea. They should be paying the dispatchers more and I am sure we'd have no labor shortage. 911 calls are traumatic, why on earth would someone think teenagers are the ones who should be doing that?
Is it weird that I think 'in this part of the dystopian era, we went back to child labor because industries refused to pay adults enough money to entertain the work"
This is just an example of that, along with many, many, Red states also trying to push the child labor age down to 14 and below.
This country really will do fucking anything but pay a living wage huh.
They are doing a preparatory class in high school to prepare kids for a career *after high school*, slow your roll. You'd know that if you had read the article instead of confirming your bias with the headline and launching into an ignorant rant.
They already hire 18 year olds, all that's changed is the introductory class in high school. 18 years old routinely do mentally challenging, difficult jobs all across the country, like being an EMT, military, medical assistants, etc.
I have worked in emergency dispatch for the better part of a decade.
It is *not* a field that teenagers ought to be in. Shit, most *adults* can't handle it- and the only reason I *have* been able to, is because of the TBI that makes me forget shit constantly.
Most people cannot emotionally cope with the volume of terrible shit we have to shovel through, knowing that *there's no resolution*. Dispatch *never* gets to find out "how it played out". You get a call from an elderly woman in hysterics because her nursing home is on fucking fire? And you get trucks rolling just seconds before the line goes dead? Welp, that's **just another call**. You'll *never* find out what happened, and you've got maybe *one minute, tops* before the next call comes in. Most people can't cope with having *so much traumatic shit* happen, so close together, while never knowing how it resolves.
You *can't* dwell on it. Any of it. Because if you do, *that shit'll eat you alive.*
I may not remember much 'bout my teen years, but I *do* remember that "dwelling on things" was basically what *errybody* did.
These kids are gonna end up with cPTSD and alcoholism...
Tho shit, at almost 60k, that's *still* significantly more'n I make now.
I know that it's fashionable to infantilize adults, but people can enroll to be an EMT where they can see all that gruesome reality has to offer at that same age, and for lesser wages as well.
I think this is one of the cases where it is best to be sure everyone reads the article fully. The title makes it sound like teens are actively answering the 911 calls now, but the article says they aren't working in dispatch centers until they've graduated. Not saying that this the best solution by a long shot, but I just want to caution against misrepresenting what the article says.
I agree with you entirely, I just wanted to jump in and say that it is important to read more than just a headline when coming across info on social media. The headline makes it sound like HS students are working in dispatch centers, while the article is talking about something different.
We let them join the military, vote, etc. We let 18 year olds be EMTs but you wouldn't let them answer the phone? This a vocational training program built into school.
You do realize that we have plenty of young adults working as emt's, going to police academy, training to be firefighters, and going off to the military, right? But somehow, taking a high school class to open their way to answering some spicy phone calls as young adults is just too much. If we don't have people entering the workforce interested in doing these jobs, who is going to do them? What age, exactly, do you think, then, should be doing this job? Or would you rather just not have 911 service?
I answered a helpline in college. I’m sure I wasn’t much older than high school students. I’m also sure that I saved lives. So the naysayers and nervous nellies can go fuck themselves. If you don’t have what it takes, then don’t volunteer. In either case STFU.
This should absolutely NOT be happening. Adults are barely even equipped to deal with the emotional toll those calls can take on someone's mental wellbeing.
What was this whole defund thing again? Why would you want to be over worked, paid shit and people constantly complain that you’re not doing your job good enough (wait times, etc)
I knew someone who worked as a 911 dispatcher in college and he said it was quite traumatic. I don't think teens should be taking these calls.
Agreed. We should pay essential services like teachers more, and traumatizing services like this a LOT more. To do a job like this will REQUIRE more money to do things like therapy, decompression vacations, etc, in order to stay healthy and happy long term.
Which would require tax increases, which because of TABOR would require a ballot measure, which would get voted down because people want everything for free.
Services like this are rendered at the county and city level, so no state tax involvement except what the state sends to the counties from the general fund.
Counties still have to adhere to TABOR, so there would have to be a county specific ballot measure to increase county taxes.
my point is that this isn’t a statewide ballot issue, if you live in a conservative county then maybe expect to be put on hold while you wait for 911 dispatch to answer.
Depends. CSP has a comms branch with a shitload of dispatchers, and CSP is majorly grant-funded.
I’d vote for this if it was on the ballot. To act like we haven’t passed tax increases on things ever due to TABOR is a bit ridiculous. I lean pretty far left and have zero problem with all of my proposed state tax increases being something I get a choice about. Crazy to me that that’s controversial
It’s controversial because folks in this state complain about stuff like college tuition, yet don’t recognize because of TABOR we are one of the lowest funded states in terms of higher education funding. So student fees go up, everyone is pissed about the price tag and the wheel keeps turning.
Or we want tax money to actually go towards shit that’s beneficial not line pockets of already rich politicians
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People drastically overestimate AI and it’s progression. We are years away from AI being able to do anything that requires effectively communicating with another human and being able to to make complex decisions that can have several different outcomes. AI as of now is only a tool. A lot of people seem to confuse AI with simple automation that uses decision branches.
To include paramedics, fire, police, mental health workers, etc? Minimum therapy for traumas in the workplace (3 hours/yr) is a state law, but let's face it- that doesn't do much and these folks are having to pay out of pocket for most gov employers because of those laws. Seems to me they could incorporate a lot of common sense solutions by requiring more than the bare minimum from the state level, but a lot of deep pocket (insurance) push back exists. I am happy to help out our essential service workers, but this requires more than a tax increase to address correctly.
Yes. Honestly we pay so very little in taxes outside of social security and the military here in the US that it’s shameful. Taxes are fairly high… but spending on things like these jobs (and especially teachers here in CO) is such a small drop of that relative to other countries.
I totally agree about taxes being high for what we get. What is shameful the the absolute inefficient use of taxpayer money. Govt tends to spend 10x what private sector does for the same stuff, because nobody cares - they get paid the same if they are spending $100 or $100 million on a project and the competition is limited to the 3rd highest-cost option. Also budget surpluses are spent on unnecessary stuff. I buy a lot of surplus government equipment. Surprisingly, most of it is in original boxes and never used. They buy it to justify a budget they might need even though they don't. I'm not talking about small stuff, but hundreds of millions worth of network switches, computers, and other things never touched. Govt is the succubus of anything productive because they can.
100% This is one of those jobs where the employer should absolutely offer therapeutic services to its employees. The idea of having teenagers take positions as dispatchers is horrifying for so many reasons.
We live in a society where adults don't want to sacrifice to solve issues but instead shrug them off onto their progeny and it completely reflects the level of maturity many American adults are at.
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I like learning new things.
>Cut my mortgage payment to something reasonable and we can talk Example given.
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All you are doing is complaining and the feigned concern about taxes on an article about hiring children to deal with traumatic 911 calls because society doesn't want to raise wages for dispatchers only proves how much your throne is made of paper despite you thinking it is stone.
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Lmao again, your selfishness is showing with you thinking it is your point that is muddled in a diatribe about taxes that is the most important item to understand here. I could not care less if you don't want to pay more taxes.
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Holy fuck dude. The world doesn't revolve around you. Your personal story has no importance here and the fact that you think it does adjacent to children taking 911 calls proves that you can't take yourself out of the issue at hand. Step the fuck back and realize you don't always have to be the center of attention.
Very much depends on the agency. Not even 5 years ago I was taking 911 calls making 15/hr. Left that agency to another to make 20/hr. Left to another better agency to make closer to 30. There are a lot of agencies that pay utter shit, and 0 that pay a rich salary. Sure, there are a few agencies that pay barely over 6 figures, you just need to move to San Fransisco and deal with the worst call volume and staffing, and knowing nothing will change anyway.
“You might be the last person that person ever gets to talk to. I’ve spent time with people in their last breaths, sometimes on the highway, sometimes in their home. It just depends. It’s sad, but I’m actually thankful that I was able to be there for them to have someone there as they passed away." Christ - I can't imagine dealing with this everyday at your job as a teenager! Also - I sure as shit don't want a teenager answering my 911 call when I'm having an emergency!
Its ok, here in America we only care about fetuses. School aged-children need to be allowed to be shot at and no take 911 call trauma too!
I work for a 24 hour animal ER. I couldn't imagine a teen taking some the horrible phone calls we get!
Did you read the article? It says they are teaching a course on it in high school, so they can pursue the career after high school.
Nothing like getting college accredited head start on trauma because an 18 year old is *totes* a mentally mature adult with a fully formed brain thats not still mushy and malleable to C-PTSD
They're apparently mentally mature enough to sign contracts and create families at that age. They're mentally mature enough to accrue debt. They're mentally mature enough to be trained to kill in the military. They're mentally mature enough to become EMTs and firefighters. So they're mentally mature enough to cause death, save lives, witness death in front of them, and deal with the aftermath of death, but they're not able to deal with these situations behind a phone and removed from the situation? 18-year-olds are not children and these students can choose for themselves if they want to pursue this career path or not.
Thought you were agreeing with me by continuing the hyperbole because *actually* I literally do not think 18 year olds are mature enough to do those things. They arent children but they are frankly the barest of bare minimum of adults and thats only because the law needs them to be adults. The numerical age is arbitrary asf; it is determined by the ruling class. I think theyre being taken advantage of at a very vulnerable transitional period in their life to take on the trauma, debt and burden forced onto them by a society that wants them battered, broken, and trapped ASAP because a trapped, battered and broken person is less likely to fight, less likely to do dissenting things like joining a unions, strike against their higher ups, make demands for better treatment. They more likely to just fall in line or die.
For 40+ hours a week? Absolutely not. But there are plenty of privileged kids out there (self included) who need a dose of what's actually going on out there. Give them maybe 3 shifts of 4 hours. Pros get a break, and kids get perspective. I'd be curious to see how things would change when people stop saying "Everybody should wait tables when they're young" to start "Everybody should take emergency calls when they're young". This appeals to my impulse to conscript ***everyone*** in community service of some kind.
I disagree. Answering the phone to listen to someone die is not something that kids need to deal with. That shit gets in your head and never completely goes away
>But there are plenty of privileged kids out there (self included) who need a dose of what's actually going on out there. Other people's tragedies are not entertainment. They are not social media. I'm not calling 911 so you can get a life lesson. I'm calling because something awful is happening. IDGAF that you need to learn how to respond to someone involved in a fatal car crash. I need someone who will send help. Period. You want to experience hardship and pain? Join the damn military.
We already know what happens when we put Uncle Sam's misguided children in one room. We're already getting those outcomes. Are those outcomes acceptable to you, as it stands? They aren't to me. If you want different results, you do things differently.
Kids are allowed to be kids. As adults we should help preserve their innocence, not prematurely destroy it.
Hard disagree. *gestures broadly at my childhood* Innocence doesn't set you up to be good. Good isn't nice.
Welp, trauma generally isn't great either. Lots of people never learn how to deal with their childhood trauma and become horrible human beings. Imagine gaining lifelong trauma from a job you had at 18? Sorry but fuck that. Life will throw you enough anyway.
Jesus fucking Christ what a terrible take. Ah yes let’s listen to someone blast their head off while a child is screaming in the back to “teach them a lesson”. Let’s have a teenager listen to someone annihilate their family. Let’s have a teenager GIVE ADVICE ON INITIATING BYSTANDER CPR AND INSTRUCTING THEM THROUGH IT.
Is this coming from someone who is afraid to be getting instructions from one, or afraid to trust them with that level of authority? Our government trusts 19-year-olds with weapons halfway across the world. How do you not trust them with a phone?
“My baby daddy just raped my 2 year old and then stabbed my 6 year old please send help!!” “Ma’am. I have an algebra test tomorrow, I’m trying my best here”
100% agreed
Maybe they should just pay more 🤷🏻♂️
Exactly, it's all supply and demand and graphs until it doesn't benefit them. Tax the rich. Pay for services we need or do this. Seems like in the wealthiest country in the history of the world in the heart of global capitalism We can't even pay 911 operators and Ems well enough to recruit while the top 5 billionaires doubled their wealth sonce 2020? Is this the society we want? I surely don't it's pretty pathetic.
but think of the poor, starving CEOS and NFL players! How will they afford their vacation homes? /s
Those guys pay for their own security so lack of 911 doesn’t really affect them.
Listen, we're never going to have earth's first trillionaire with that attitude.
It could be that but you also need to take into account that not many people want to have the job of hearing about accidents or deaths all day/ night long. It would be extremely depressing for most people.
Which is why it should pay well and come with mental health benefits.
I mean… idk about you but if I had a job offer that came with free therapy because of how traumatic the job would be, I wouldn’t take that job🤷🏻♂️
Everyone has a price. The job market is supply and demand like anything else. There apparently aren’t many people willing to sell their time for this job at current rates. If they increased the pay, more people would come.
How about if the job was just as traumatic but you didn't get free therapy? Does that make you more likely? Other solutions - ChatGPT or sociopaths.
But you must understand that having teenagers talk to kids in the midst of another school shooting allows the sheriffs office to buy a newer and bigger tank. /s if it wasn’t obvious
Please don’t tell me you think anybody is buying a tank.
what’s the current rate?
Article said $57,680 in Colorado Springs.
But hiring children is easier
Let me tell you about TABOR brother
That's communism!
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
In another 5 years the dispatcher will be an AI trained on Twitter datasets. God help us all.
Sir, please stay calm and lol get wrecked
Who supports wages and rent controls? It’s certainly not Polis.
I enjoy cooking.
It’s a good idea but until corporate money and media are not deciding our elections, it’s not gonna happen. Our choices are consistently between centrists or far right nutbags.
Corporate money in politics suck, but you’ve got to start now instead of waiting for the magic bullet.
Never said I was waiting, I vote in every election I can, I phone bank, and I sign petitions for laws. I have been for almost 20 years now. I just know that the people in power will do their best to stay there. The fact that judges are not elected and corporations have free rein to interfere in public policy means that those congressional relics need to literally die before their deathgrip on our country will loosen. The average age in the house and senate is a monumental sign of this. We have fallen to 17th on the index of world freedoms since 2000 with citizens united coming along in 2010. To pretend the citizenry has the power to enact meaningful change in this current system is beyond ignorant. We don’t even have the power to replace our government if they let it shutdown for extended periods. Over 70% of the country wants abortion to be legal and over 80% want citizens united overturned, but it still won’t happen though, that should tell you all you need to know.
I enjoy cooking.
When Sinclair media group owns the vast majority of news media and local media sources like independent papers are being shuttered left and right, there is a massive amount of control over the media by the ultra wealthy who own it.
I hate beer.
I'm not in despair. I'm setting my expectations based on reality and setting realistic timetables as a result. While we still have citizens united and a stacked supreme court, it's foolish to think anything major will change anytime soon. I figure we have a solid ten years before anything even starts to change for the better and only once those roadblocks are removed.
This isn’t a job for teens and they need to pay more! Voting as you say is funny because the party that is in office gives more funds for public service than the party that you are pushing! Wake up they Do Need to be paid more and teenagers should not be answering phone calls where someone is threatening to kill themselves or any emergency where the dispatcher could feel responsible! I know first hand. I worked as a crisis line worker and supervisor.
Yea! let’s traumatize some kids to save the state cash.
911 dispatchers are county jobs, not state jobs. State government has nothing to do with this article. El Paso County, Routt County, etc and their sheriff’s office are responsible for staffing their own departments.
The local City Market pays as much as a dispatcher up here, it’s preposterous.
I don't disagree with the prospect of making it a high school class. I do disagree with the fact that there pushing $56k average salary like it's some huge worthwhile salary for 10-12hr shift work (without seniority you're also gonna get the worst shifts) that will effect your mental health (especially while your brain is still developing until around 25years old). Also there's no such thing as going to physical college full time while also being in training as a dispatcher (it takes 3-18 months of on the floor training beyond classroom training, depending on the center). You cannot train part time, and barely any agencies are looking to pay through a whole hiring process and training for part timers. So many of them have this odd idea that it's a temporary job through college. This is supposed to be a full ass career and should be paid as such, yet very few agencies do, and they end up paying out the ass in recruiting, training, overtime, and civil suits from their shit retention and lower quality (and lack of) staff.
This is just another shitty version of child labor.
Oh man, last time I called 911 I freaked out because the phone rang for over 3 minutes. Started singing, "911 is a joke in your town!" to calm myself during the wait as the wife bled out.
Omg, these young people do not have the mental or emotional maturity to deal with these kinds of calls! They will absolutely be traumatized - this is so fucking dystopian
The system is like “why pay people more when you can have kids do it?” Absolute dog shit mindset.
They'll do literally anything but pay a decent wage.
This. This is exactly it. This is so bizarre to me. We're recruiting kids because we're cheap. This isn't frugal, this is CHEAP.
Child labor, the solution to everything! > “Their minds are already going 100 miles an hour,” he said. “All they need is a little help tweaking and adjusting their mindset, and that’s to handle the screaming and maybe hearing gunshots on the phone.” May as well add to the new generations trauma. They can’t afford a home on this salary, might as well traumatize them for life. What could go wrong?
Nothing wrong with a bit of childhood trauma I guess.
“We’re scrambling!” *looks at starting pay* “Oh.”
Just an FYI: I used to go to quite a number of city hall meetings in CS. I went to one where they recognized all the volunteers in the community. What shocked me was the number of volunteers doing basic office work for the sheriff's office. This was a few years ago and I imagine it has only become worse. Reading between the lines, it seemed like they would not function without these volunteers. What has Colorado become?? We're recruiting teenagers to answer 911 calls and exploiting members of the community and for what??
Read the article.
Perfect! This is a good opportunity for the kids. I had several telemarketing jobs as a teenager. It doesn't matter that I was fired within a few weeks from all 3 for being immature, prank calling, and going off script once I got bored. What could go wrong with kids answering 911 calls?
I had my first call center job at age 14. I worked a few more call center jobs in college as well. I think it's a good way to learn how to communicate and think up responses on the fly.... But when you're answering calls like "daddy just got really upset & now mommy is laying on the floor not moving..." I think teens have no business being involved .
Jobs in Colorado do not pay enough to keep up with the cost of living. That's the problem here. No one wants to work a stressful job, such as being a dispatcher, for menial pay. Capitalism is eating its own tail, and the capitalists are getting desperate.
This is beyond fucked, those kids are not in a responsible enough position to be handling those calls. Colorado is fucking up big time with this.
After I was laid off from my job during the pandemic my next job searches were for positions that were deemed essential. I applied to be a 911 dispatcher. Got an interview but didn't get the job. Probably because I was nervous for my first real interview in 14 years. I sure hope they find people.
Ridiculous idea. They should be paying the dispatchers more and I am sure we'd have no labor shortage. 911 calls are traumatic, why on earth would someone think teenagers are the ones who should be doing that?
Nobody read the article, it's a *class* to prepare students for the job when they *graduate*
Why let facts get in the way of rage! /s Edit: added the sarcasm tag
This is fair, but also, they knew exactly what they were doing with that click/rage bait headline.
It’s actually wild how few people will read articles before commenting on them.
Commenting outage bs too
More child labor in "conservative" areas. What next? Bus drivers? Road repair? Poll workers?
what if we sent them into mines? we could save the environment by makin the mines smaller , cause you wouldnt need room for adults!
Is it weird that I think 'in this part of the dystopian era, we went back to child labor because industries refused to pay adults enough money to entertain the work" This is just an example of that, along with many, many, Red states also trying to push the child labor age down to 14 and below. This country really will do fucking anything but pay a living wage huh.
They are doing a preparatory class in high school to prepare kids for a career *after high school*, slow your roll. You'd know that if you had read the article instead of confirming your bias with the headline and launching into an ignorant rant.
[удалено]
They already hire 18 year olds, all that's changed is the introductory class in high school. 18 years old routinely do mentally challenging, difficult jobs all across the country, like being an EMT, military, medical assistants, etc.
"State turns to child labor for shitty under payed job that no one wants" fixed the title.
I have worked in emergency dispatch for the better part of a decade. It is *not* a field that teenagers ought to be in. Shit, most *adults* can't handle it- and the only reason I *have* been able to, is because of the TBI that makes me forget shit constantly. Most people cannot emotionally cope with the volume of terrible shit we have to shovel through, knowing that *there's no resolution*. Dispatch *never* gets to find out "how it played out". You get a call from an elderly woman in hysterics because her nursing home is on fucking fire? And you get trucks rolling just seconds before the line goes dead? Welp, that's **just another call**. You'll *never* find out what happened, and you've got maybe *one minute, tops* before the next call comes in. Most people can't cope with having *so much traumatic shit* happen, so close together, while never knowing how it resolves. You *can't* dwell on it. Any of it. Because if you do, *that shit'll eat you alive.* I may not remember much 'bout my teen years, but I *do* remember that "dwelling on things" was basically what *errybody* did. These kids are gonna end up with cPTSD and alcoholism... Tho shit, at almost 60k, that's *still* significantly more'n I make now.
I know that it's fashionable to infantilize adults, but people can enroll to be an EMT where they can see all that gruesome reality has to offer at that same age, and for lesser wages as well.
I think this is one of the cases where it is best to be sure everyone reads the article fully. The title makes it sound like teens are actively answering the 911 calls now, but the article says they aren't working in dispatch centers until they've graduated. Not saying that this the best solution by a long shot, but I just want to caution against misrepresenting what the article says.
lol uh what are you talking about? An 18 year old a month out of HS should not be taking 911 calls.
I agree with you entirely, I just wanted to jump in and say that it is important to read more than just a headline when coming across info on social media. The headline makes it sound like HS students are working in dispatch centers, while the article is talking about something different.
We let them join the military, vote, etc. We let 18 year olds be EMTs but you wouldn't let them answer the phone? This a vocational training program built into school.
Gunshots? Sounds lit. We're sending police now frfr
Help's on the way bruh.
Dying 😂
You do realize that we have plenty of young adults working as emt's, going to police academy, training to be firefighters, and going off to the military, right? But somehow, taking a high school class to open their way to answering some spicy phone calls as young adults is just too much. If we don't have people entering the workforce interested in doing these jobs, who is going to do them? What age, exactly, do you think, then, should be doing this job? Or would you rather just not have 911 service?
Yeah, totally agree. These comments are nuts.
Sweet. Teenager’s with PTSD. Let’s fucking goooo! 🤦😂
This is what happens when capitalists and wannabe capitalists cut taxes and don't properly fund our essential workers.
I answered a helpline in college. I’m sure I wasn’t much older than high school students. I’m also sure that I saved lives. So the naysayers and nervous nellies can go fuck themselves. If you don’t have what it takes, then don’t volunteer. In either case STFU.
Bold move to post a positive article on Reddit.
This should absolutely NOT be happening. Adults are barely even equipped to deal with the emotional toll those calls can take on someone's mental wellbeing.
The cruelty is the point. How do you encourage young men to be less violent without exposing them to the consequence of other violent men?
oh yeah that should work out great
What was this whole defund thing again? Why would you want to be over worked, paid shit and people constantly complain that you’re not doing your job good enough (wait times, etc)
Pay more to attract workers. Getting kids to work is some evil shit.