A special program at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach gives students a look at what it's like to be a 911 dispatcher and a chance to graduate ready to step straight into the career.
Students are learning to stay calm, ask the right questions and gather critical details for first responders. On one recent simulation, the voices sounded like a real emergency, but it was all practice.
Victoria Simpson, a senior, is one of the students training to field those calls.
"It can be any extra thing, so clothing, weapons, any extra info that you can get that can help the officers or anyone that's arriving on scene," Simpson said.
Her classmate Liliana Munoz, also a senior, works the other side of the line, coming up with emergencies to put those skills to the test.
"We definitely do really hard calls with each other," Munoz said.
Simpson and Munoz are two of 28 students currently training to become certified 911 dispatchers.
Michael Byrd, the school's criminal justice teacher, said the course mirrors professional training.
"It gives some real-world experience with us using the simulators. It also teaches them teamwork, communication, and gets them ready for the career field," Byrd said. "This is the same course an adult would take to become a 911 dispatcher."
Students will test for their certification at the end of the school year. If they pass, they become career-ready and could begin working as a dispatcher immediately.
