14 July, 2007

Whose Job Is It To Watch YOUR Child? 

Sigh...I hate writing this post because I don't want to pile on when a mother has just lost her child. But one quote from Yolanda Flores really jumped out at me:

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"I want this to be known," Flores said between sobs. "I want to warn all parents that they need to watch their kids at all times, because (Great America) doesn't do their job." (emphasis mine)
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No. Parents need to watch their kids at all times BECAUSE THEY ARE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY. I don't care if Great America has four or six or twenty lifeguards at the pool, their job is to keep the wave pool (or whatever the hell it is) as safe as possible. They are not there to babysit your child and if you are not planning to accompany your child into the pool, you'd best be damn sure another familiar adult IS or that you put a life vest on the child.

Again, from the article (emphasis added by me):

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"Flores said she had not been in the pool with her son at the time and does not know how he drowned. The 4-year-old had been in the water earlier, got out to eat some chips and went back in, she said.

When he didn't return within 10 minutes, she said, she became concerned and told her daughter to find him. After Jasmine told her mother she couldn't see the boy, both started toward the pool, where Jasmine ultimately found him underwater, Flores said. The girl's screams attracted the lifeguards' attention, she said.

Great America has no age or height requirements for children at the wave pool. "We do recommend that children under 4 feet tall use life vests, and we have them readily available," Frugé said. "There is no official rule that requires it."

Carlos was 4 feet tall, his mother said. He was not wearing a vest but might not have been required to if the recommended height rule were mandatory."
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Ms. Flores asks, even with four lifeguards at the pool, how they could NOT see her son. My suspicion is that, given the string of warm days we've had lately, the pool is awfully crowded and a small child would be hard to see. A suspicion confirmed by another parent who recently took her children to Great America:

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"It was amazingly crowded; we had two parents looking after one 7-year-old," Crawford said. "Once the waves started, it was hard to stay together. . . . The inner tubes are really a hazard to other guests because it is really easy to get trapped between several tubes as you bounce around in the waves."

Crawford said she saw lifeguards on the side of the pool but no lifeguards in the shallow entry area."
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Ms. Crawford's experience does raise a red flag on Great America's part: There SHOULD be a lifeguard or two patrolling the shallow area of the pool, just as skating rinks have people patrol on the ice, rather than simply walking the edges of the rink. And I don't know that there WEREN'T lifeguards in the shallow area of the pool the day Carlos Flores died, but there certainly should have been.

But ultimately, it's the responsibility of the parent--or the adult who brings the children to the park--to keep an eye on their children. (emphasis mine)

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"Parents have to "be vigilant all the time" with children in pools, said Sue Sherman, a spokeswoman for Lifesaving Society, a Canadian water safety group.

"That includes lifeguarded circumstances," Sherman said. "The lifeguard is your safety net. The first person that's responsible is the adult that takes those children to the pool."
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Yes.

I am absolutely sick for Yolanda Flores and her daughter Jasmine. I can only begin to imagine the horrible agony of losing one's child, and as I said at the beginning of the post, I have no wish to pile on. However, I've lost count now of how many times I've had to step in and tell a child on the ferry to NOT LEAN OVER THE RAIL or how many children I've ended up watching nervously at Crab Cove and Alameda Beach because their parents were nowhere to be found (there is no lifeguard on duty at Crab Cove or Alameda Beach). I've been called a bitch for asking parents to please keep an eye on their children when they're in the water (or running around throwing sand on other people on the beach) and it always amazes me that they get so pissed off that some strange woman has the unmitigated gall to expect them to mind their own children.

I just hope some of those parents see this article and take Yolanda Flores' words to heart: "I want to warn all parents that they need to watch their kids at all times..."

Labels: in the news, personal responsibility

   ~~ victoria on 8:20 AM ~~    2 comments

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