Safe Kids of Randolph County

Scotty and Hannah talk to Wendy Kennon about child safety and injury prevention.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Carolina Cares. It's ScottieBlaisdell. It's Hannah Tyler as always,
and we welcome new faces again Hannah. This is Safe Kids of Randolph County
and they're represented by the coordinator WendyKennan and J. C. Parrish who
is the co coordinator. And whatis Safe Kids of Randolph County all about?
It is mainly self prevention, injuryprevention for kids zero to nineteen years

(00:25):
of age. So what kind ofinjuries are we talking about regularly? For
Safe Kids we represent mainly car seatsafety, so we do have a car
seat distribution program, but car seatsour number one initiative. We also do
safe Sleep for safe sleep practices withinfants in their parents or caregivers. Fire

(00:45):
prevention, heat stroke prevention, andI always say, I can't believe we
actually have to have an initiative basedon heat stroke prevention, but you'd be
surprised at looking at the numbers howmany kids either gain access into a car
accidentally and cannot get out, orparents we like to thank, accidentally leave
them in the car and they dodive heat stroke. We also do some

(01:07):
water safety, not very much sincewe don't have a lot of water bodies
in or large water bodies in RandolphCounty, specifically bike rodeos and International Walk
to School Day operation. Medicine dropthat's another big one. Medication safety.
Wow, you guys seem to doa lot in Randolph County just by giving
us the list right there. Whatis perhaps the most common issue that you're

(01:30):
seeing amongst kids getting injured in RandolphCounty? I would say fire prevention is
probably one of the biggest ones,and we specifically the two of us,
don't do a lot with the firesafety. We leave that to the professionals,
which are obviously the firemen. ButI would say the most preventable one
that does do the most damage wouldprobably be fires. Second to that maybe

(01:51):
car seat safety. JC certainly canspeak on that being an officer with the
police department, but that's one ofthe reasons we have for the car seat
safety program is one of our firstand number one initiatives, is because we
need to make sure car seats aresafe. I personally don't have children,
but I know that a new parent. There's so many car seats out there,

(02:12):
there's obviously so many automobiles out there, and getting them with the right
fix and the right installation process andwith the actual car itself. It's very
difficult for somebody who's so overwhelmed beinga parent. That's one of those things
where someone can come by and youcan give them advice on how to do
that properly for that particular vehicle,in that particular seat. Yes, there
are approximately maybe fifteen of us.We're all are certified Child passenger Safety technicians.

(02:38):
We've gone through forty hours worth ofclass to get certified in that program,
so we do correct any wrong installations, or if they don't even have
the car seat installed at all,we can certainly help with the instruction of
that and or make sure they havethe proper seat, because sometimes more than
not, I guess they have thewrong seat for the age and the way

(02:58):
of the child. And it seemslike the newer cars probably make it a
little bit easier to get them attachedcorrectly, but you have to kind of
be more creative or maybe get somesupplemental piece of something in order to secure
them to older vehicles. Absolutely,when I was going through the program or

(03:20):
the training, and that was along time ago, but there were at
the time five different latch plates whichare the actual seat belt. Some lock
on their own, some are emergencylocking, some don't lock at all,
so there's this little plate called thelocking clip. We don't use those,
thank goodness, that often anymore.But yes, and the newer car seats,
which unfortunately we don't get to seethat often, they are way easier

(03:43):
to install than the old ones thatwe are, the ones that we normally
see. And as kids get older, they start to transition out of car
seats into boosters. And then Iremember being young and just couldn't wait until
I could sit without one in thefront seat. What are the laws we're
seeing now because they change so muchabout when a child can transition out of
a car seat or booster seat.Basically, you don't want to be in
a car seat in the front seatdue to the airbags and the new vehicles.

(04:05):
There's not you know, as faras the law is recommendation that you'll
be thirteen and above to sit inthe front seat. Your body's still growing.
I mean it's still growing at thirteen, but your spine is you know,
if you're up in the front seatand that air bag hits a child,
it's going to do damage or evenpossibly you know, kill them.

(04:27):
Now for the booster seat, Iknow there's generally a age or a weight
where they are able to move fromthe traditional car seat to the booster.
What is that number? To bein a booster in the state of North
Carolina, you have to be fouryears old or forty pounds, But that's
not always true. We've seen kidsbe four years or forty pounds and they

(04:48):
still did not fit in that seatproperly. So it really depends on the
height the weight of that child tomake sure they're properly seating in that booster
seat. Because I know it's notabout what keeps me out of a ticket,
it's about the child's safety. Soif you're concerned that you're getting into

(05:08):
that transitional time and is it timeto do that to move to that booster,
you should talk to the folks atSafe Kids of Randolph County and they'll
help you out correct. You cango to any of our checking stations,
make an appointment, and we willhelp you out make that decision. You
are bringing up fire safety. Arethere are items in the household that parents
maybe don't think, Oh I needto keep this higher up, or there
are things just to make sure theirhouse is going to be safe and they

(05:30):
don't have to worry about fires withtheir children. Well, unfortunately we are.
We have seen some that use thegrills the outside, you know,
food grill for heating on the inside. That's not only a fire hazard,
but a carbon an oxide issue,which also causes a whole other issue within
itself. We see, you know, the space heaters, they get left,

(05:51):
some clothes may get you know,left near or around that particular heater,
may you know, spark the fireand before they know it, their
house is engulfed in flames and youknow there may or may not be able
to get out. And I wouldimagine as well. Candles still an issue.
Candles are always going to be anissue because you know, it's in

(06:12):
a little most of them, someof them obviously not, but in a
little jar. So what harm coulda little candle be? But and people
forget them, They leave them,they forget them. I myself have been
guilty of that. Well, we'retalking about child's safety, and there's all
different directions we could go with this. And one of the things that I
think about, because I have someyoung'ins living in the house right now,
is when you're getting a shelf thatyou put together, having that bracket that

(06:38):
attaches it to the wall, becauseyou're thinking, oh, this is balanced.
And for adults we consider how scienceworks and all that, but kids
just see, hey, I wantto get that thing. Let me start
climbing. It's funny that you saythat, because I'm sitting here thinking is
the things that you don't think about. I would have never before safe kids
thought about, you know, strappingor locking furniture TVs to the wall,

(07:03):
mounting them to the wall, orsomething else. So whether they're not a
tipover. There's this video that wehave that it shows a child climbing up
the dresser to get something on topof it, and the drawers you know,
are not really in or you know, anyway, the whole entire dresser
comes down on top of the childand the child's just stuck underneath there.

(07:24):
And usually when they're doing it,there is not a parent or guardian watching
their every move because you can't,so you know, who knows how long
that child's been there. And withthe summer months swimming, I know you
said you don't have a lot ofwater in Randolph County, but what are
some things to help maybe keep yourpools in your backyard safe, or your
kids as they're going out to thelakes or maybe the neighbor's house to go

(07:46):
to the pool. Around your housewith a pool, you should always have
locking gate that the child or toddlercan't open life jackets. If you're at
the lake, don't take your eyesoff the child. You know it's split
second that child can be under thewater, and you know that's life of
death situation. Are you guys seeingthings that maybe were legal when I was

(08:07):
a child, you were a child, that's not the case anymore. What
are some of those gaps you're seeingand oh, you can't do that anymore.
But you know when the parent wasthat age, it was fine.
I think about riding in the backof a truck or something like that.
You still see that riding in atruck. You have to have an adult
to be riding in the the backof a truck. I still see some

(08:28):
grandparents taking their kids without a carseat, because back in their days car
seats. You know, when Iwas young, the way your parents stopped
you is they just put your armout in front of you and stopped you.
I mean, we just didn't havecar seats back then. And we're
still seeing a few grandparents that,you know, the older generation that don't
think they have to have a carseat. Yeah, that that science doesn't

(08:48):
work out trying to stop a projectilewith your arm. It's a good thought,
and it's always like it's fine untilit isn't. Exactly of the generation
that is old enough to remember whenseat belts became the law. So I
you know, I know, mysister and I were in car seats,
but they were the leatherbacks with themetal and in front there was no cushiness.

(09:13):
We didn't we could ride in theback of the truck. We didn't
back in those days. There werestation wagons to where you were riding in
the very very back and you werefacing the back of the car. That's
a whole near rear facing opportunity foryou. The back of the roadside.
Absolutely vacation was different than the peopleupfront. Absolutely. And then bike helments.
You know, any kid that's sixteenyears of age and younger, it

(09:35):
is the law for them to weara bike helmet. And we go to
ashbur City schools every single year justabout and we do bike rodeos for those
kids and most of them either don'thave a helmet, and it's because their
parents. We made it fine.We all survived, We all survived without
a car seat, We all survived. But it's a whole different world out

(09:56):
there now. It's true. We'retalking, by the way to safe Kids
of Randolph count it's Wendy and JC. And let's talk about your day jobs
as well. I mean, you'redoing this obviously, it's a big part
of what you do, but youdo have another gig, Wendy, what
do you do? I am oneof the health educators at Randolph County Public
Health Department, so this fits kindof perfectly complimentary to what you're doing as

(10:18):
a profession. It does. Wehave made it fit. When I first
started, that was in two thousandand one. We brought J well,
actually JC brought us on board asfar as our Safe Kids coalition. We
initiated that in two thousand and nineand have been doing it ever since.
And it sort of did fit inmy realm of my job, but it

(10:39):
certainly, you know, we've madeit fit much more so. And JC,
I think I know what you do. I'm looking at what's on your
jacket there? Yeah, I'm ina Lieutenant over administration for the Random and
Police Department. Back in two thousandand nine, I went to the forty
hour class up here in Greensboro atone of the fire departments on the north
side of the car seats. Isour big main thing at Random and Plus

(11:03):
we have the operation Medicine Drop thatpeople bring in and dispose unused or inspired
medications. What is it? Imean you brought up the medication thing.
Why do we hold on to medicationslonger than we should? Is there this
thought that, oh I might needthis again or is it just we just
forget What do you think it is? I think a lot of the people

(11:26):
think, well, we might needthis and don't realize that those expire you
know, won't say it inspired.There's usually are no longer be able to
use them. When we started theMedicine Drop, we would go out in
the communities, set up tables andwe would get all kinds I mean some
we found medicine. I think theoldest medicine we got was from nineteen sixty

(11:48):
nine. Wow. So people justput it in the back of the cabinet
and forget about it. I'm guiltyof it. If I went through my
cabinet today. I'm sure I willfind some that's inspired. But it's not
just prescriptions. It's also over thecounter medicine. So we accept all that
at our drop box there inside ourlobby that's open twenty four hours, seven

(12:09):
days a week. I think theSheriff's Department has one for Randolph County,
and I believe Archdale and Liberty bothhave a drop box. So we've got
them located throughout anne Ashborough, throughoutthe county rat And for someone who doesn't
live in Randolph County, is ittypical where they can go to police stations
to drop their medicines off, becauseI know you're not supposed to flush it
down the toilet because that hurts theenvironment. Some stations, so some pharmacies

(12:33):
have them now I know some CBSpharmacies and Walgreens have them. I think
it's Operation Medicine drop dot Com.They can check that and check their local
area to see where one is.What do we need to do better as
a community to help protect our kidswhen we're driving, it's pay attention.
A lot of the pedestrian accidents withchildren, it's because one the child's run

(12:56):
out in the road and the driversjust not paying attention and we're two busy.
See, everybody's in a rush,rush, rush, and we're all
guilty of it. It's just slowdown and just remember that you need to
get to your destination, but youneed to get there safely, and going
five or six miles faster is notgoing to get you there any faster if
you have an accident. So Ithink as a community we just need to

(13:18):
slow down and help protect everyone.Speaking of which you brought up a great
point about pedestrian accidents and kids inschool buses. Can you just touch on
school bus safety for people driving.Yes, just remember when you see that
stop arm mount, you have tostop. That is a problem. I
know in Randolph County we get callsfrom the school system certain stops are running

(13:41):
and people are just in a hurry. The only time, if you're going
in the opposite direction, the onlytime you're allowed to continue going if there's
a median there, you know,or if it's four lanes with a turn
lane, just make sure you're stopping. Because them kids, they're being typical
kids. They're not looking and they'rejust starting out. And I would hate

(14:03):
to know I'd be the one thatran over some anybody you know, just
just slow down and paid attention tothese stop arms. We're so thankful to
have spent this time, Wendy,thanks for coming in. Yes, thank
you for having us. Has beenexciting for us and for JC again,
thanks not only for this but alsofor serving in our community in the police
department as well. Thank you forhaving us here. All right, that's

(14:24):
Safe Kids of Randolph County. Isthere a website? Is there some way
we can connect? Yes? Absolutely, we do have a website. It
is www dot Safe Kids NC dotorg and you can find the majority of
North Carolina either all of the countieseither have their own specific coalition or their
interregional coalition. And then we alsoare on Facebook, so if you search

(14:48):
for that you can certainly find usand other area Safe Kids Coalition. There
you go. That's Wendy, thanksto JC as well. I'm Scottie.
Hannah's here and that's it for thisedition of Carolina Cares.