I have to share a story. I still need to get this out of my system.
I took the kids to the pool across from us today. It's zero depth and if I didn't feel safe taking my kids along with the daycare kids I wouldn't. But, I've done it in the past and feel pretty good about it.
We're in the shallow water -- maybe 1 1/2 foot deep at the most. The pool itself only goes to about 4'. There was a boy (I'm guessing maybe about 15-16) who was a special needs kids. I could tell just by watching his actions.
It didn't take long for another boy to come over and start holding this older boy under the water. I thought at first that he was just goofing around, like kids can do.
But, the older boy didn't put up any resistance whatsoever. I have all of my kids right with me and I'm watching this over and over again. It wasn't for very long and again, I kind of thought it was playful.
Well, the boy took it further and started holding the older boy under longer and longer. I'm looking around, no other adults are in the area. Here I am with 6 little kids and this kid is being held under water. Again, never struggling to get out from under the hold of the other kid.
So, I'm starting to panic just a bit. I tell my kids to get out of the water and sit on the side. Fortunately for me, they all listen very well. I again watch this boy hold the other under the water. To the point of now the kid underwater has expelled all of his air. The boy on top stuck his fact under the water -- it almost looked like he wanted to give him a breath of air. I had enough and couldn't watch anymore. So, I kind of ran over there, yelling for the boy to get off of the other one. Fortuanately, he listened, looked at me and ran away. The boy who was under water, just got up and started playing in the water again.
Still my kids are sitting on the side of the pool. I never leave them alone but my instincts told me I had to do something. So, they are still sitting there and I run over to the guard office and asked one of the guards to come out so I could talk to her and walk back to my kids at the same time. I told her what happened and said I didn't know which adults were with this boy but someone needed to keep better watch on him.
Immediately, the pool manager and several guards went into action. I had to take my kids out of the area because I was still really upset over what I saw. We walked to another section of the pool. The manager asked me to describe the boy who held the other under water. Later she came up to me and told me that boy was also a special needs child. Knowing this, at least I could understand what happened a bit more.
Here's my gripe. Actually two.
None of the counselors with these kids knew what was happening to one of their children in the pool. When the manager approached them, there were 4 ladies who had been chit chatting. Don't get me wrong, I like to chit chat, but not at the expense or safetly of any one of my kids. This boy could have ben drowned before any of them noticed. I felt so sad for the boy. I felt such irresponsibility on the part of the counselors.
I'm not sure how much I feel the guard sitting in the chair should hold some of the responsibility. I will say that we were a good distance from the guard and it's possible that the guard also thought at first it was playful. I have very mixed feelings on the responsibility of the guard in this situation.
I tried to get the name of the camp they were with -- the pool manager would not give me that information. Cameron does have a friend whose older brother is a guard at the pool. I may see if I can get that information from him so I can go a round about way to make someone aware. These counselors were so wrong.
I'm just glad I was in the right spot for the boy who could have been really in trouble.
Thanks for listening -- I needed to get it all out.