10-year-old calls 911 for help with math homework

A Wisconsin sheriff's office is used to responding to emergency requests but one of the deputy sheriffs for the Shawano County Sheriff's Office fielded an unexpected call recently from a 10-year-old child who called in to ask for help on their math homework.

Shawano County Sheriff George Lenzner told "Good Morning America" the child reached longtime dispatcher Kim Krause when they dialed 911 on Nov. 15 and after informing the child the emergency line isn't for homework help, offered to assist nonetheless.

"She had some time, so she said, 'Can I help you with the problem?' And well, he gave this long problem with decimals and she was unable to help him, so she informed him, 'Well, let me see if I got a deputy near your residence [to help]," Lenzner said.

Lenzner said although the Shawano County Sheriff's Office, which serves about 42,000 residents in a mostly rural area about 40 miles west of Green Bay, tends to be busy, Deputy Sheriff Chase Mason happened to be available and in the right place at the right time.

"[This] isn't something we really normally do but he wasn't busy at the time and he was in the area, so he stopped by," Lenzner explained. "[Mason] has a stepson that's about the same age … and so he sat down and helped [the child] with [their] math [at their home]."

"It just worked out good that day," he added.

The sheriff's office posted about the unusual call on their Facebook page Tuesday.

Lenzner said he's "proud" of Deputy Mason for stepping in and added that deputies and staff occasionally help others in the community even for non-emergency situations, such as shoveling snow out of a neighbor's driveway or helping to install a new mailbox for another.

"Cops are there to help people and especially the youth," Lenzner said. "I don't want our youth to ever be afraid of law enforcement. I want them to continue knowing that law enforcement is there to help them."