WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

So we belong to a gym in Setauket that gives swim lessons in the gym pool. We pay extra for this - $300 session, just like saftey swim. But the lessons are private and since we're a family membership we get to go all the time and practice etc. I love it...its great. Well. it was.

Today I had all 3 girls, baby in the stroller, my 4 adn 3 year old ready for their lesson (they take turns, 3 year old goes while 4 yr old waits) I notice as I'm coming out of the locker room that the baby's water is leaking in my towel bag and sit down and start pulling stuff out of my bag as my 2 daughers go into the pool and I say "stay on the steps while we wait for Ms Anna"

I look up to check as I'm focusing on my bag and see my 3 yr old underwater. I jump up and say Ellie! You cant stand there!!! (right after the steps- she's tiny)

She looks disoriented and goes under again. I jump in the pool- sweatshirt, pants, sneakers and all- and pull her out. The lifeguard on duty happens to be their instructor Ms. Anna. The pool director witnesses the whole thing as well. I couldnt tell you what they were doing during all of this, except that Anna came over after and said "ellie, if you just kicked you would have been fine, mommy didnt have to come in" and at one pt another mom yelled "someone do something!"

Afterwards Ellie is scared, I tell her to go do her lesson with Ms. Anna - I didnt want her traumatized from ever going in the pool again and wanted to keep it like - no big deal. Dont be scared, everything is fine. You didnt do anything wrong. Another Mom says "are you ok" I reply- Shes fine. She says "no are YOU ok" I give a weak smile and say "just flustered"

They have their lessons, I stil there like a wet @$$hole feeling dumb and cold but just waiting to get the he11 out of there. Afterwards I call a friend and she meets me there so I can go file an incident report. The gym owners have no idea about it- he says "of course they wouldnt tell me this, I'll fire someone" --which I dont really want-- and I leave...after tearing up re-telling the story.

The gym person tells me to call them in a few days and let them know what I want them to do.

SO I dont know. What DO I want them to do?

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

I have no idea but I'm sorry this happened- how scary!

I don't know that I'd want anyone fired- but I would want them spoken to

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Thanks My DH just told me I should have them at least cover a couple lessons to pay for new gym shoes

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

OMG BETH!!!! That is so scary, I don't even know what I would do.. But why didn't anyone else see??? Were they with another child? I would have wanted an explanation at least to see why no one else was paying attention...

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

That is so scary, thank god you saw her!

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Wow, thank goodness you sprang into action! I can't imagine how scary that must have been. Not sure what I'd want them to do, but they definitely need to address the situation and apologize profusely, as well as make sure something like that never happens again.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

WOW.

First off, glad everyone is OK

Second, ***???? Yes, I would have jumped too. Kids can drown in inches of water in the bathtub. What made them think that a 3 yo can have the ability to reason in an unplanned situation? Like they are going to think...oh yeah, let me push up with my legs. No, they will panic. Take on more water, and drown.

I would be SOOOO PI$$ED off! Like I would flip out that 2 people in charge 1/ did not supervise the pool seriously. 2/ undermined the whole thing.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

OMG... I am so sorry this happened, Thank god your babies are safe!

I know I am in the minority here and will probably get flamed... But I don't see it as their responsibility if the teacher wasn't there yet and the class hasn't started. Maybe I am mis-reading...

But when we go to Safety Swim and the instructor isn't there yet we wait, and if my DD goes in... its MY responsibility b/c the other instructors are with their students... There is no central lifeguard looking over the entire pool... Maybe its different where you go, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to be watching but myself.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Yikes! Holy crap Beth. I don't know what I would want either - leaning toward someone getting fired. How dare she make lite of the situation!!

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Thats awful...and I'm sorry but that lifeguard should be reprimanded I believe you said it was the instructor as well..but what the hell was she doing when she was lifeguarding!?!?!?!? Id' be livid

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

I would definitely go forward with the "claim" - and i'd also expect my next session to be severely discounted. (I wouldn't stop the lessons for the same reason you mentioned - don't want to traumatize your girls)

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

was this world gym?? if so, fm me!

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Posted by cds58019

Posted by CarlieJLD7

OMG... I am so sorry this happened, Thank god your babies are safe!

I know I am in the minority here and will probably get flamed... But I don't see it as their responsibility if the teacher wasn't there yet and the class hasn't started. Maybe I am mis-reading...

But when we go to Safety Swim and the instructor isn't there yet we wait, and if my DD goes in... its MY responsibility b/c the other instructors are with their students... There is no central lifeguard looking over the entire pool... Maybe its different where you go, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to be watching but myself.

I see your point of view but she did mention that there was a lifeguard supposedly on duty, who happened to be their instructor.

I know you don't want someone to get fired but honestly someone wasn't doing their job. And when they have a very important job such as a lifeguard Im not sure if there should just be "slap on the wrist" punishments. It's a very tough call.

So glad your DD is OK!

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

It's not up to you to decide what happens-I would file the report and let the chips fall where they may based on the facts.

So sorry you had to go through that

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

There is NO question that they are SOLELY responsible for what happens in their pool - whether there is a lifeguard on duty or not.

Of course, that won't matter one bit to anyone if the consequences were more severe. Trust me when I say I completely get where you are coming from (not sure if you remember my daughter getting trapped & LEFT in a deflated bouncehouse in 90 degree weather for over 20 minutes.).

At that point, I cared less about assigning blame than the well-being of my child. Accidents do happen. If you do think they are good lifeguards & swim teachers, I'd insist on some additional refresher courses/certification courses. If I remotely thought this could happen again, I'd want them fired. I'm unsure by the OP if they weren't watching at all or they were trying to see if she was going to figure it out on her own. I do think they are trying to deflect their responsibility by saying "Mommy didn't have to jump in the pool". That's total crap.

Message edited 3/4/2011 10:59:15 AM.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Get her a$$ fired. If someone ever, EVER endangered my son's life, they would be lucky I didn't freaking drown THEM!!!!! I would be absolutely LIVID, demand financial compensation for the lessons and my sneakers, and DEMAND the "lifeguard" be terminated. end of story.

And for making the comment to make YOU feel stupid for saving your own child????? ABSOLUTELY I would have her canned.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

I'm so sorry this happened and I am so glad that your DD is OK.



I would want this incident officially filed and I would want the teacher/life guard reprimanded or suspended in some way to "teach her a lesson" so that she takes what happend seriously. Not fired, but something to make her realize how serious this is.

If I'm not comfortable how things are going forward, I would switch schools.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

So I just got this email from the General Manager

Date: 3/4/11

To: Beth Siar

Please contact me at 631-751-6100 to set up a meeting. I would like to invite you and your husband to view the digital tape of the incident and to discuss you email.

in response to this:


Tom,

I'd like to follow up with the incident in the pool area I reported to you yesterday involving my three year old daughter, Eleanore. Naturally, my primary concern is the safety of my daughters. In fact, we joined World Gym as a family only a few months ago so that my husband and I could be involved, along with the instructors, in teaching them swimming and an understanding of safety around the pool. However, I never expected to have to lifeguard them myself or that I would be putting my daughter in risk going there. Yesterday not only ruined my clothes and gym sneakers, but was emotionally draining from this extremely stressful day.

I'd like to suggest that this lifeguard be reprimanded and re-train/set stronger policies. Also that management should randomly check that their policies are being followed and that people ARE paying attention. Three items of discussion could easily be:


•Lifeguards seem to have street clothes on and are not wearing a bathing suit even though their on duty, is there a reason?
•Lifeguards don't appear to be always focusing on the pool and are often distracted with personal items and not paying attention.
•Are the lifeguards strategically positioned for the best viewpoint from where they stay? Our very first visit to the pool, my husband noticed someone passed out in the hot tub and went and checked on him. Gail at the time, couldn't see the man from her viewpoint. Thankfully, my husband being a police officer always keeps him on guard for incidents such as this.
I'm not looking to shut down your program or injure you, what I'd appreciate is a gift certificate to keep my daughters going and continue to learn the importance of safety in the pool.
Please contact me.

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

I would've done the same. I would not want my child traumatized either so I would keep getting lessons and would want them to be free for quite some time. I also would want the lifeguard suspended without pay for awhile, but not fired - that's harsh to me and we're human and we all make mistakes. Yes, it could've been worse, but it wasn't thankfully and I think she can learn her lesson by going without pay for awhile and maybe being forced to take extra safety classes or something.

As for what she said, it would have upset me too and I would've spoken to her about the incident later (not in front of the kids) because although her actions were 10000% wrong, maybe she was just trying to keep your child from getting even more panicked with what she said - like, it was no big deal, you could've handled that, let's get back in there and learn some more so you don't scare your mom again. She was definitely in the wrong in what she did, but after I rescued my child, I probably would've said something pretty mild to my kid too to deflect the scariness of what happened and to keep her from getting too scared to go in the water in the future. It's hard because you want your kids to know water can be dangerous, but you don't want them to be too scared to go in and it's hard to strike a healthy balance of good fear.

Obviously, you're not overreacting - even the other instructor knew what could have happened and how stupid it was that the other one was not paying attention - it only takes a second!

Re: WWYD I saved my DD in our swim school pool

Leave. Withdraw your kids and sign them up for saf t swim. They don't let you even have a kid near the pool unless the instructor is ready, arms outstretched, for your kid.