Please read this story...sad news
www.wenatcheeworld.com/.../
(NOTE: If the link doesn't get you to the story, click on the "HOME" button on the newspaper website, it'll be the "front page story". It's being updated frequently, so this link could be ever changing.)
Very very sad story and circumstance that happened today at the high school pool. :( I really feel sorry for the parents of this person, and I'm sure a lawsuit of some kind will be coming. I'm just glad I wasn't one of the teachers who was supposed to be "watching" the class.
I swim with my masters group every morning in this pool, and for the remainder of the month, ALL groups are out of the pool. Apparently the high school P.E. classes that use the pool for their swimming portion of the year, do so with the regular P.E. teachers supervising. Not a trained lifeguard, water instructor, etc. type of person. Just a regular old teacher.
I just talked with my masters coach, and she got the call from the school that said we are out, along with the swim team is out, and every user group out till the end of the month while they "do an investigation".
Basically what is going to be happening, is that they are going to require having a paid lifeguard on deck while all groups are using the pool. Not a problem for us to pay for that in the morning for masters, but kinda sucks that we're out till December. Hopefully we'll be able to return then, if not sooner!
I will still be able to swim in the afternoons at the YMCA pool, but I do enjoy my mornings.
Parents
Former Member
I was a lifegaurd/LGI the whole time through highschool-college....we've always had to swim 500 yards nonstop freestyle (no hanging/stopping on walls for air), 25 yrds kick on your back keeping a 10lb? waterbrick to your chest/above water, then some retrieval skills with the waterbrick.
The 500 is what seems to give the "non-swim team" kids trouble (most make it about 200-350 before giving out, and its not because they're old and decrepit(they're 15-18yr old kids!) It is usually due to a lack of any previous technique instruction. A day or two of a focusing on a few simple freestyle adjustments will usually bring these kids up to snuff with the 500. Its not the "these dang whipper snapper lifegaurds only have to do a 250! We had to do a 10000 fly in my day!" that bothers me at all...its the critical things, the important stuff like: CPR, AED, simple First Aid, and the big one SPINAL INJURY RESCUES.
I swear at least half of the lifegaurds I worked with/trained growing up could not perform proper CPR, put an AED on, let alone do a safe SCI/backboarding rescue. (If I break my neck on the diving board, just leave me on the bottom of the pool, i'll take my chances waiting for the paramedics/firemen who i've seen do it right.)
I guess my issue is the lack of emphasis on the big things....like a human's heart, lungs, spinal cord. I dare you, walk up to a lifegaurd who's texting/sleeping/daydreaming(or even scanning like they should!)and ask "what are the steps of CPR?" prepare to be let down.
I know CPR, AEDs, espeically SCI's are not very common and MOST highschool lifegaurds wont ever experience them...I mean just about anyone can yank a panicked small child out of a pool(right?).
It's that "one-in-a-million" chance a lifegaurd will be faced with a heart or spinal issue. They NEED to know CPR like the back of their iphone and also know where to put those leads at. Because when one of the noodlers suddenly stop, and start sinking while bubbles coming up....way too many lifegaurds i've worked with and trained, would flat panic and become a blank page. Suddenly forgetting everything...I guess this is what it ultimately boils down too. Don't forget folks, MOST non-open water gaurds are age 15-19...../rant, sorry
I was a lifegaurd/LGI the whole time through highschool-college....we've always had to swim 500 yards nonstop freestyle (no hanging/stopping on walls for air), 25 yrds kick on your back keeping a 10lb? waterbrick to your chest/above water, then some retrieval skills with the waterbrick.
The 500 is what seems to give the "non-swim team" kids trouble (most make it about 200-350 before giving out, and its not because they're old and decrepit(they're 15-18yr old kids!) It is usually due to a lack of any previous technique instruction. A day or two of a focusing on a few simple freestyle adjustments will usually bring these kids up to snuff with the 500. Its not the "these dang whipper snapper lifegaurds only have to do a 250! We had to do a 10000 fly in my day!" that bothers me at all...its the critical things, the important stuff like: CPR, AED, simple First Aid, and the big one SPINAL INJURY RESCUES.
I swear at least half of the lifegaurds I worked with/trained growing up could not perform proper CPR, put an AED on, let alone do a safe SCI/backboarding rescue. (If I break my neck on the diving board, just leave me on the bottom of the pool, i'll take my chances waiting for the paramedics/firemen who i've seen do it right.)
I guess my issue is the lack of emphasis on the big things....like a human's heart, lungs, spinal cord. I dare you, walk up to a lifegaurd who's texting/sleeping/daydreaming(or even scanning like they should!)and ask "what are the steps of CPR?" prepare to be let down.
I know CPR, AEDs, espeically SCI's are not very common and MOST highschool lifegaurds wont ever experience them...I mean just about anyone can yank a panicked small child out of a pool(right?).
It's that "one-in-a-million" chance a lifegaurd will be faced with a heart or spinal issue. They NEED to know CPR like the back of their iphone and also know where to put those leads at. Because when one of the noodlers suddenly stop, and start sinking while bubbles coming up....way too many lifegaurds i've worked with and trained, would flat panic and become a blank page. Suddenly forgetting everything...I guess this is what it ultimately boils down too. Don't forget folks, MOST non-open water gaurds are age 15-19...../rant, sorry
