Children's Safety Zone

A trip to MIT is one of many opportunities for students at Arizona’s only all-girls public high school after their invention was recognized.

Twenty-three high school girls in Jessica Horton’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) class at the Girls Leadership Academy of Arizona (GLAAZ) were delighted to learn last fall that they were one of only 16 schools in the nation to receive the 2013 Lemelson-MIT Program InvenTeam grant.

As the only school in Arizona to win, the $7,500 grant has helped them develop the prototype for a unique drowning prevention T-shirt for toddlers called the “WataWescue.”
 
Now 10 of the GLAAZ students – the core development team – will travel to the 2013 EurekaFest which is held at MIT (in Boston) to showcase the prototype to other STEM students, professors and industry professionals.

The Invention
The prototype continues to evolve through testing, but includes a light weight t-shirt for toddlers that automatically inflates if the child falls in the water. It also has an alarm to alert parents. Twenty-six students have split into individual teams to focus and finalize on each of the prototype’s components including Alarm Research, Garment Construction, Inner Tube Design, Logo Design, Communications and Public Relations, Trigger and Mechanics, and Finances. Numerous science, engineering and health professionals around Phoenix are advising the students and facilitating testing of the final prototype.
  * The name WataWescue was inspired by the speech of young children that often have trouble saying “Rs.”

Public School Tuition, Private School Opportunities
The InvenTeam project is just one example of how GLAAZ’s academic mission applies the work of the school to real life. Drowning prevention in Phoenix is significant to the students, many whose families have been impacted by near-drownings.

The school provides all students additional opportunities to participate in academic experiences more typical in a private school setting like free college courses beginning freshman year, numerous scholarships, public speaking, leadership development and more. The faculty are highly gifted instructors with a passion helping the young woman apply their schooling for ongoing academic success.

Enrollment for Fall 2013 is now open for young woman throughout the valley that are looking for focused learning, college prep, leadership development and scholarship opportunities. Call (602) 288-4518 or visit www.glaaz.org to set up a tour or learn more.

A 13-month-old boy is lucky to be alive after falling into a backyard pool in Tempe Wednesday afternoon.

Tempe police spokesman Mike Pooley said the incident happened around 2:15 p.m. near Guadalupe and Kyrene Roads.

Pooley said the boy’s parents were outside assembling a play set and took part of their pool fence down.

The toddler who was outside playing with his 10-year-old sister somehow made it to the backyard and fell into the pool.

Pooley said the sister pulled her brother out of the pool and their parents called 911.

Authorities said the child was crying and alert when crews arrived but was transported to the hospital for observation.

TEMPE, Ariz. — Tempe police are trying to figure out what happened to a body they pulled out of the canal just south of U.S. 60 and Priest Drive on Sunday afternoon.

At around 4 p.m. police said a bicycle rider saw what she thought was a body floating in the Western Canal and called police.  Tempe police officers showed up to find a dead man in the water.

Police aren’t sure of the man’s age or how he died.  He had no identification and there were no obvious signs that he slipped or slid into the canal near where the body was found. Water in that area is about 10 feet deep.

Authorities at the scene also weren’t sure how long the man had been in the water but said it had been a fair amount of time.

The medical examiner will perform an autopsy this week and try to determine who the person is and how he died.

This is the second body found in a Valley canal in about a week.  Last Sunday Phoenix police found a dead man in the canal near 36th Street and Camelback Road.

The Western Canal multi-purpose path, which runs parallel to the canal, is a popular trail with walkers, runners and bicyclists.

It happens so fast, it leaves families devastated. Whether it be in a backyard pool, a lake, a canal, even a bathtub or a bucket of water”ﾓ preventable drownings are tragic, and they affect everyone.

Even though we live in the desert, the state of Arizona consistently ranks near the top for the number of drowning incidents in the nation.

Seven years ago, area safety and health professionals started the Walk to Water Safety, hoping to involve the community in raising awareness about drowning prevention.

Shannon Liebrock, board member of the Ryan Thomas Foundation is the aunt of Ryan Thomas, an ASU student  who drowned in 2008 in a boating accident on Lake Saguaro despite the fact that he was an accomplished swimmer.

In 2011, Cody Thomson lost his son Brenan, 6, when he drowned in a neighborhood canal.

Both Shannon and Cody share their stories in our RAK Video below, and talk about why they participate in the Walk for Water Safety: to spread the word to prevent others from suffering such unimaginable loss.

In neighborhoods throughout the Valley, volunteers of all ages will meet and then distribute water safety information as well as water-watcher bracelets in a door-to-door walk every spring. In 2013, the event takes place on Saturday, April 6.

Communities throughout Arizona ask volunteers to distribute water safety information in a door-to-door walk every spring.

In 2013, the event takes place on Saturday, April 6. Parents, grandparents, scouts, kids in strollers “ﾔ anyone can sign up to walk the neighborhoods, and place hanging bags with information and water watch bracelets and other materials on doors  around the Valley.

PHOENIX (CBS5) –

Authorities have recovered the body of a man who jumped from a 300-foot cliff at Saguaro Lake in the Tonto National Forest Sunday.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Officer Christopher Hegstrom said the body of Justin Otto Lee Anderson was found Friday in the area of Sandy Beach where he disappeared.

Multiple witnesses told authorities they saw Anderson hit the water on his back and never resurface around 3 p.m. Sunday.

Search helicopters from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and the Arizona Department of Public Safety flew over the area and authorities deployed an underwater search vehicle, which was in use for about one hour until water being released from Mormon Flat Dam was too strong to properly operate it anymore.

Law enforcement authorities said the search continued with the use of a drop camera that they say “is better suited for the environment Anderson is missing in.”