BOY DROWNS AS LIFEGUARDS WATCH OVER POOL

The caption of this post is not new. It happens more often than we would like for it to and it is very unfortunate and hard to explain to grieving families.

Parents believe that when they send their children to a pool, they are safe because there are lifeguards on site to watch over everyone. And it should be that way, but it does not always happen.

When a guard is certified by an instructor of a certifying agency, it means that they have met the minimal standards of that agency for certification on that day. There is no guarantee that a guard will be able to respond to an incident such as a drowning. After all, most of these guards are under 21 years of age and are in fact a child as well.

Sometimes young people see the sun bathing, the girls, the boys and the  glory of being a guard, and want it so much that they will purchase a certification card on the black market because they want the job and cannot pass the certification or do  not want to put the work into the certification.

Management, a lot of times, may not even be aquatic trained. Our local pool when I was growing up, was ran by a woman that could not even swim. And this happens a lot as well, especially in small towns and rural areas like ours.

But it is the managements place to be sure that they have fully investigated the training of the guards they hire and that they understand the skills that are actually needed to prevent an incident and if need be to make a rescue according to their Emergency Action Plan that they have outlined and posted.

The management is also responsible for holding daily in-service training for guards to stay up on their skills needed for rescue and that includes a high level of swimming ability. In-service training should include timed swim checks with equipment, back boarding for head, back and neck injuries, CPR, rescue breathing and AED skills. Those that work at the facility, including management and concession, should be a part of the in-service training and understand their role in the Emergency Action Plan.

Parents have the right to ask management about the facilities Emergency Action Plan as well as the abilities of the guards. If a guard looks tired or hung over, parents need to feel that they can report this to management with confidence that the manager does know what to do.

Two things parents should give high consideration to are:
1. Be sure your child is an accomplished swimmer that knows self survival techniques in the water and can swim at least the five basic strokes of swimming (front crawl, back crawl, backstroke, breast stroke and sidestroke) no less than 150 yards. Sorry "doggie paddling" and "finning" on your back are do not count here (although finning can be used for survival). Parents do not leave their children in swimming classes long enough, most of the time, for the child to truly develop into a good swimmer.
2. Get to know the pool, management and guards where your child swims. Be sure the standards of the pool meet your standards for the safety of your child. If you have concerns, address the management. If that does not work, go to the managers supervisor right away and do not be afraid to report what you experienced or saw. You just might be saving a life. And it could be your child's.

Now watch this video of a 14 year old boy's drowning at a pool with eight guards. It should of never happened. No guard came to his rescue. Only a friend and a stranger tried to save him.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Boy_-14_-Drowns-in-McKinley-Park-Pool_Chicago-219076031.html

Want To Bring Star Fish Swimming Academy to Your Town Next Summer?

We have been giving it thought .........lots of thought. That we may just be moving into position to be able to offer learn to swim classes in area small towns such as Buffalo, Arnett, Gage, Mooreland, and Seiling, Oklahoma.

If you would love to have a quality learn to swim class session in your town next summer, give us a call at 580-256-3262 to know of the interest. Local people can be trained to be a part of bringing a seven level swimming program to your town.

Share this blog post with family and friends to have them help share the interest. But we do have to move quickly because summer is only nine months away!

One of our little swimmers

Today, one of our young swimmers was able to swim almost 100 feet in the front crawl ! Now, this young lady has taken three sessions this summer and should be progressing well. She has worked very hard to get to where she is at (three strokes learned and can float forever!) .

Sadly, I had an opportunity to be at our local waterpark recently and was watching from outside the fence. What I saw was young swimmers, maybe between the ages of 8 and 12 years, struggling with a doggie paddle style of movement after landing in the water from the water slides.

Sadly, some families believe that if a child can go down a slide and then get to the side (in any fashion) that their child can swim and are safe in the water. No so. If anything, they are taking a big risk of the child believing that they are a good swimmer and will eventually take bigger risks, such as jumping "at the cliffs" (a local watering hole that they jump from a height into barely a shallow pond---and yes there has been a drowning there in the past).

Sadly also, that there were certified lifeguards on site that felt that these children could swim well enough as well. I have to wonder about the swimming level of these guards!!

Gone seems to be the time that the pool management, lifeguards and parents knew that learning to swim (at least the five basic styles of swimming) is a mandatory life skill. Maybe it is time for all of the state bathing codes to include the swimming qualifications of those that work in and around aquatic facilities. It just might be the way to bring back the importance of really learning to swim. Until then, maybe aquatic facilities and their managers should set their own standards much higher and be sure that everyone is a swimmer. A real swimmer.

Just my 2 cents!