Case Date:

6/10/2021

I am quite concerned with the continued lack of on duty lifeguards at the Bryan Park Pool during swimming lessons. Three days ago (6/7/21), I almost ended up jumping into the water myself to save my actively drowning 3 year old because her instructor had taken a child to the bathroom leaving another instructor to watch both his and her classes, unsuccessfully. In my incident report, I stated that there needs to be a lifeguard on duty other than the instructors because they cannot reasonably be expected to see everything around them and it's not the parents job either. Mind you, I have many years of being both a lifeguard, aquatics director, swimming instructor, and outdoor educator under my belt when I say this. It's not just my opinion. I was told in a follow-up meeting the next day with the aquatics director, Shanda(?), that there would be a lifeguard on deck or in the chair from now on. This, unfortunately was not the case, yet again, at tonight's lesson. I have attached a picture (I hope) showing that there are no lifeguards in the stand or on deck anywhere near the active lessons. If the argument is that the instructors are also watching the kids, please refer to Indiana Health Code 410 IAC 6­2.1­35 Lifeguards (g). I am filing this complaint through the city not to be a pain, as I've dealt with my share of those over the years, but because I genuinely believe this is an unsafe situation based on experience. Furthermore, it clearly doesn't seem to be resonating at the facility level.

Case Date:

6/7/2021

I am a parent of three children participating in swim lessons at Bryan Park pool. I have several concerns with the lack of training and the ratios of children to instructors, especially in the level 1 class. The instructors are very nice, but clearly have not had instruction or training on how to conduct a swim class. My son in level one had about 14 kids in his class to one instructor. This is a safety issue in itself, but he also had very little instruction or even pool time during his lesson. He sat on the wall with his feet in the water 99% of the time other than when it was his turn to be dipped into the water for a few seconds. Additionally, in the toddler/guardian class, our poor instructor had just discovered she was teaching the class right before the class began. Needless to say, she was not prepared and did not have anything as far as activities pre-planned for the class. I understand that finding instructors may have been difficult this year, however, if a program is being offered especially ones that have a fee, I feel that there is an expectation for there to be some quality and training involved. Learning to swim is an extremely important skill that I would hope Parks and Rec would ensure to be a quality controlled program with many weeks prior training. Please consider implementing more staff and age and swim level specific training before swim sessions begin for these instructors in future sessions. Thank you for your time.