Learning to swim is an essential skill that can save your life.
As we begin our focus on water safety, let's take a look at one mother's cautionary tale,
and I wanna warn you, it might be difficult to watch.
Soraya Morgyyn Stephens. She was born August 8th, 2016. She was my little firecracker.
It was a normal day, Sunday afternoon. Everyone was at my mom's house. You know, friends,
family gathered. She and I were in the room and my mom came into the room and said,
"You always have her cooped up in here. "Let me take her out to go get something to eat." So they,
you know, left to go eat her mashed potatoes. Yeah, I remember her closing the door behind her.
Then I heard this gut-wrenching scream. It was really loud. I see my cousin running
with Soraya in her arms, and my cousin, she's a nurse. So she was in my street,
CPR on Soraya, her little body and ambulance came and they got her. We went to the hospital.
When we got there I just remember someone saying, "We're sorry. "Your daughter didn't make it."
She was 23 months old. By sharing my story, I know it helps at least one family not to go through
what me and my family are going through. My Sorayaslovebugs. I started that just to honor
her and to bring awareness to drowning. It's a Instagram and Facebook page that I have. Drowning
is 100% preventable. Just be aware of your surroundings because kids are quick. They're fast.
They can be here one minute. And you're like, where'd they go? If you're around water to have
someone be your water watcher at all times, you know, like, hey, you're gonna be the water watcher
for an hour, switch up, 'cause a kid can be literally drowning in front of you. And you won't
know because drowning is not like the movies. It's quick and silent. It can happen under 30 seconds.
Dr. Johnson, I wanna start with you. Just watching that mom's story.
It's so heartbreaking. As a physician, talk about, you've seen this scenario before,
unfortunately, what do parents need to do to keep their children safe?
Yeah. You know, that's not an uncommon story. Unfortunately, the Sorayas of the world,
drowning is the leading cause of death for children one to four. So
it really is a common story and a very sad story. And you know, I think
Soraya's mother really gave excellent advice as to what you need to do, is your eyes have to be
on your children. You have to be thinking all the time about the water. And I think about
my own experience as a parent, when I had young children, the first place I always went to look,
if I couldn't lay eyes on them was let me check in the pool if I haven't found them because
that was, and then I would go from there. So you have to be aware. The advice that she said about
somebody always looking at the children, if they are playing near the water, that you have somebody
that's designated, that is your job until you give that job to somebody else, to look at the water.
And another point that she made that I really want to emphasize is that drowning is often a silent
event. We think about it like the movies where, you know, people are splashing and yelling, help.
And particularly with children, when they're drowning, they just go under and there are other
kids playing around. Sometimes adults are standing in the water with them and nobody notices. So
you really have to have people who are designated to do that. And then I'm sure we'll talk some more
about other things that we can do to make our children safe. If they do inadvertently get into
the water or have trouble. Because most of the time when children drown it's when they're get
involved in water and that was not the intention. So they inadvertently get into the water.
Right, they're there for another reason. It's not swimming.
Or they're around. Right. They just happen to fall into
a body of water. And that wasn't the intent, for them to go swimming.
Tara, I wanna bring you into this. I mean, you were in charge of the swimming programs at the
YMCA. We heard in the piece about having a water watcher. I know that there are
layers of protection or things that you discuss at the Y in keeping kids safe. What are some of
those? And what do you tell parents, and how young can you start a child in learning how to swim?
All great questions, 100%. We teach three layers of drowning prevention from barriers in the
fact that you have to have the pool protected with the gate and that it's a safety measure,
or there's some form of alarm that sounds, that says someone has entered the water,
into the concept of supervision and what a water watcher is. And that is a commitment
to someone that has zero distractions, no cell phones, no alcoholic beverages,
no conversations. You know, we have a full campaign where we give out a water watcher. It
has a water watcher pledge on the back where you make a commitment that you're dedicated to that.
And that stands for any body of water. People will say that and instantly assume it's just a pool,
but you know, Florida does lead the nation in drownings because we have so many bodies of water
between our lakes, our pools, our beaches and canals, children can drown in a bathtub. If you
are in a space that there is water around, someone has to be committed to being the water watcher,
and on our final and last, you know, drowning prevention piece is obviously swim lessons.
And it is critical. We teach as young as six months and all the way up through adults. We truly
believe that swim lessons, it is a life skill. Yes, it's a leisure activity. Yes, it's a sport,
but it is a life skill that every single person should have the opportunity to learn because it
is, drowning is preventable. It can happen in a matter of a second. It can happen anywhere.
And it is a mission of ours to change that statistic and to drive the fact
that it's 100% preventable. And we all are a part of that mission.
Mr. Pitts, you have been teaching swimming for over 30 years. Talk about how important it is
to do this. And how do you teach the children? How do you engage them in swimming? That
it's fun. They're having a good time,
but they also are learning a skill that's gonna possibly save their lives.
Well, I've been actually teaching swimming over 50 years.
Okay.
People might find--
You just look so young.
Despite my youthfulness.
Interesting story though, I actually started teaching swimming when I was 10. So that's how
it works out. I was fortunate enough growing up in the inner city, mom raising seven kids by herself,
housing projects, the whole works, but we luckily we had a swimming pool up the street that was left
over from white flight. Some of these people here know about white flight. And so I was introduced
to swimming and I learned to swim at a really early age. I couldn't afford to go swimming. So
I paid for my own swim lesson by hustling soda bottles in the community where I had to get
10 soda bottles to go swimming each day. It was 50 cents. So financially it was a barrier,
but I got past that. And then I got discovered and they put me in the Learn to Swim Program,
put on by the Boys & Girls Club, Red Cross, and all that. So I went, okay. And then they started
letting me help assist. Once I got accomplished by 10 years old, I was pretty on the swim team.
When I was at advanced, then they started letting me help them teach other black kids how to swim.
So I started, I was around it at a young age. Now, one of the great things about swimming
is as it relates to children, it's not like piano lessons or anything that you have to
drag the kid to. It's not a math class. Kids love swimming. That's why I ended up going swimming
before all the fancy conversations and the future that I'm sitting in now happened. I just wanted
to go swimming for fun. Okay, and luckily I got formal swimming lessons. So I would say
one is that it is a necessity and it should be made a high priority by parents.
And that access to opportunities, swimming programs in communities, learn to swim programs,
moving from the segregated history and all the barriers that were put up in the past.
Of course they existed. But what about right now? Okay. So taking responsibility right now,
like the good doctor said, to getting kids into swimming programs.