Children's Safety Zone

When it comes to child drownings, most people think of a swimming pool or a bath.

But in Arizona, there is an additional danger: canals.

Earlier this month, Cisco Mesquita, 2, wandered out of his Guadalupe home, under a fence and into a canal. The young boy drowned in two feet of water.

In January, brothers Anthony, 10, and Calib Love, 6, drowned in a canal outside of Maricopa. Six-year-old Gilbert resident Brenan Thomson died April 9, 2011, when he and his brother went into a canal near their home after a bike ride.

Two weeks ago, drowning prevention experts and public safety officials gathered near the location of that tragedy to talk about the safety issues of canals and raise awareness.

“Parents need to talk about the dangers of the canals,” said Mike Connor, the Gilbert Fire Department spokesman who was at the scene in 2011 when public safety officials were called about two boys missing in Gilbert.

“We’d had a torrential downpour, the day of and day prior. The canal was at a high level and moving fast,” Connor recalled. “We don’t know exactly what happened. We know both boys ended up in the canal. Not sure if one went in and the other went in to help. We just don’t know what happened. The fire department was called. By the time we got there, a bystander was there trying to pull them out, 60 to 80 yards down from where they went in.”

Arizona has an intricate system of canals to get water to the desert. And while there are nice pathways for walking and biking around many of the canals, there are few “ﾔ if any “ﾔ barriers to keep people out of the water.

Arizona natives who grew up with the message, “Stay out of the canals,” may be able to transfer that to their own children. But the thousands of people who move to the Valley every year may be completely unaware, Connor said.

“I am a transplant here. I didn’t know anything about the canals. Our communities are not brought-up-and-raised Arizonans who have that. We have people from all over,” he said.

During the public event last week, residents told Connor they didn’t even know there was canal access in the San Tan Ranch neighborhood until Brenan’s death.

“Parents need to talk about the dangers of the canals,” said Mike Connor, the Gilbert Fire Department spokesman who was at the scene in 2011 when public safety officials were called about two boys missing in Gilbert.

PHOTO: In this April 18, 2012 photo, Gilbert fire captain Mike Connor speaks during a press conference near the site where Brenan Thomson drowned in Gilbert, Ariz. Arizona has an intricate system of canals to get water to the desert. And while there are nice pathways for walking and biking around many of the canals, there are few _ if any _ barriers to keep people out of the water. (AP Photo/East Valley Tribune, Tim HAcker) ARIZONA REPUBLIC OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
In this April 18, 2012 photo, Gilbert fire captain Mike Connor speaks during a press conference near the site where Brenan Thomson drowned in Gilbert, Ariz. Arizona has an intricate system of canals to get water to the desert. And while there are nice pathways for walking and biking around many of the canals, there are few _ if any _ barriers to keep people out of the water. (AP Photo/East Valley Tribune, Tim HAcker) ARIZONA REPUBLIC OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Samantha Ostby, who lives in the same neighborhood as the Thomson’s, has made it her personal mission to get word out about canal safety.

She wants drowning prevention officials in the Valley to make sure and mention “canals” when talking about the other water hazards, like pools and bathtubs.

Ostby is working with the Lori Schmidt, Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona president and a public education officer for Scottsdale Fire Department, to help get the word out.

“We are partnering with media. We are also working with SRP to develop educational materials. We also want to reach out to all of the agencies who own canals to standardize signage and encourage safety measures,” Schmidt said.

SRP has 130 miles of canals in the Valley.

Ostby praised Schmidt’s work and SRP’s safety information on its website, adding that it’s time the public takes notice.

“We become complacent when it comes to water safety. We’ve been too naive,” she said, speaking about the issue of canals. “You can’t do better until you know better. I’m trying to get families to know better.”

Parents need not only ask themselves, “Do I have a fence around my pool?” but, “Do I live by a canal?”

“I live next door to a sidewalk that leads to a canal. For almost 10 years it never donned on me,” that it was a safety issue, she said.

Ostby’s own children are now 10 and 12, sparking another reason for her to get involved.

“I didn’t want anyone else like me to not think about something like that and have another tragedy hit another family,” she said.

This time last year, Arizona was on a record breaking pace with child drowning cases. It is why KTAR and Fulton Homes has launched the “Two Seconds Is Too Long” campaign earlier than usual this year.

We ended 2011 with a total of 16 child fatalities. As macabre as it sounds, Lori Schmidt with Arizona Drowning Prevention Coalition and Scottsdale Fire said, “Considering we had 20 the year before, we can actually celebrate that we only had 16 last year.”

By early May six children had died in drowning accidents setting Arizona up to expect more than 30 drownings by the end of the year. “We had a very tough Spring and were very scared,” Schmidt remembered, “We want to get an early jump on water safety this year, but unfortunately, we’ve already had four children die in water this year so far.”

If you have a child in your family who cannot already swim the first line of defense is to get them into swim safety classes. “Developmentalists say start when their upright locomotive skills develop,” said Lana Whitehead, President of SwimKidsUSA in Mesa. “But, we start them a little bit younger because we want to get them in loving the water and respecting the water.”

At one of their pools on a Monday morning, seven babies are blowing bubbles, flipping over, and floating. Most are between three and 12 months. Stacy and John McRae are at the pool with their eight month old son, Troy. “We started him at three months, so he’s been coming to classes for five months now,” she said.

The couple deliberately started the program early because, “We read a lot about (swim safety) classes and heard it really helps develop motor skills.”

The infant swimming courses concentrate on both the child and the parent to build layers of protection, “Starting with a fence and a self-latching gate or pool net,” said Whitehead. She also recommends parents take CPR classes and stay current on certification. Another barrier includes what Whitehead calls a “Touch Supervision approach, which means, whenever the child is near water the parent is within an arm’s reach.”

Shasta and Brandon Bear of Mesa were taking their son, Max, to the SwimKidsUSA program when their family dog hip-checked him into the family’s jacuzzi. “It just happened in a nano second,” she said, “Thank God we were there to see it happen and we were there to pull him out in case he wasn’t able to save himself.”

Two years later, Max is now a big brother to his 13-month old sister, Avery. She’s pressing her face against the back door and whimpering to have the same freedom as her brother. There is a latch on the door, an aluminum rod high above her head, and an alarm that chimes each time the door opens.

“Shasta is a model parent,” explained Whitehead, “Who is always hands on with her children’s swim instruction and safety courses.”

When Whitehead hears the Bear family never installed a fence after Max fell in the water two years ago, she begins to worry. “No child is drown proof, no one is, not you, not me,” she said.

After 40 years teaching swim safety and studying child development, she has seen the worst happen to the best of parents. “I believe you’re a responsible parent, but you’re human, the phone rings, you get distracted.”

The Bear’s are divided on whether to put up a fence. “I think it’s unnecessary,” said Shasta, who has faith her daughter will respect the water if she does get outside alone, “Her swim instructor seems to think that she can float on her own, but she’s still vulnerable.” Brandon is literally on the fence, “The way our pool is laid out, ” he said, “to put a pool fence up, will just destroy the back yard.”

“You’re taking a chance. You’re trusting that child is going to make the same decisions when you are not there,” said Schmidt, “If you don’t have a drowning, you’re lucky. Absolutely, 100% lucky.”

Luck may be dwindling as Max deftly takes a broom stick out of the linen closet and marches over to the sliding glass door. “He released the safety latch with the broom handle and Avery was watching his every move.”

Shasta tells KTAR she is confident she can keep an eye on Avery and convinced her safety is a matter of responsible adult supervision.

“I think that (Max’s) knowing what to do, created a false sense of security that they think they’re drown proof and they’re not,” said Schmidt.

Over the past two years of record drowning calls, Schmidt has met with devastated families, “Many of them are responsible parents who tell me their child was out of sight no more than five minutes.” Under water, that tiny amount time is critical she said, “In five minutes, the organs start shutting down. At ten minutes, death is already imminent.”

Given a chance to logically think it through, Shasta and Brandon admit it’s indefensible not to have a fence when their children are still so vulnerable.

Driving her message home, Schmidt asks one last question, “Would you rather have a fence as your barrier or would you rather have police tape around your pool?”

GILBERT – A 3-year old child has been pulled from a backyard pool in Gilbert and flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Firefighters tell us the boy was outside with his family near Germann and Power when he slipped off his floaties and then somehow got into the pool.

His family spotted him about a minute later and pulled him from the water.

He was not breathing — but a family member started CPR.

By the time paramedics arrived the boy was coughing up water and is expected to survive.

Five-year-old Joseph Behner recently dove into a pool fully clothed from his long-sleeve shirt down to his dark blue jeans and laced-up sneakers.

He was among four other kids bobbing in the water fully clothed at Aqua-Tots Swim School in north Peoria during an afternoon class.

Although giggling and splashing, the young kids were taking part in a serious lesson — learning what it feels like to fall into water fully clothed.

Most drownings don’t occur in bathing suits, according to the swim school. Rather, it’s sometimes the child who has wandered into the backyard and stumbled into the pool. And it is a different sensation to be in water with the weight of jeans and sneakers.

“Little kids are curious about the water,” said El Mirage resident Marie Behner as she watched her young son in the pool.

Behner remembers a time when Joseph wanted to jump into their neighbors’ pool, out of curiosity. Joseph, being fully clothed and not knowing how to swim, got the OK from his mom and plunged into the pool.

“He sunk right to the bottom and I went in after him,” said Behner, who had also felt the weight of her clothes.

Now, after about a year of taking lessons at Aqua-Tots, Joseph is completely comfortable in the water — as Behner glanced over at him doing a nice backstroke during the lesson.

“They could be the best swimmer, but they don’t know how to swim with their clothes on,” she said. “The weight drags you down.”

Aqua-Tots trainer Laura Adrian, in the pool with the children, reminded them what to do if they’re in trouble: turn on your back and float.

The fully clothed swim lesson was part of the swim school’s drowning-prevention initiative.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of injury-related deaths for kids ages 1-14, according to the Peoria Fire Department.

“We’ve found a great need to start preparing our kids as early as possible,” said Jamie Cartledge, owner of the Aqua-Tots Peoria franchise, which opened in 2007 near 78th Avenue and Deer Valley Road.

The school teaches children ages 2ﾽ and up to swim and the recent session of swimming with regular clothes was added to their regular lesson.

The lessons will run quarterly; starting again mid-summer and in the fall, Cartledge said.

Maricopa County saw 49 drownings last year, according to Children’s Safety Zone, an Arizona-based organization that tracks drowning incidents.

This year, the Valley has seen three child fatalities involving water, according to a report by Children’s Safety Zone.

Last week, in Phoenix, a 2-year-old boy drowned after falling into an unfenced backyard pool near 59th Avenue and Encanto Boulevard.

Behner said she and her husband are more than excited that Joseph is learning about swim safety.

“This (program) is exceptional,” said Behner, “Joseph loves it, and can’t wait to come back.”

Eric Robinette may be a 16-year-old boy every other day of the week, but on Thursdays he’s a shark.

That’s when he goes to Hubbard Family Swim School for lessons, a routine he’s kept up for more than a decade. Since starting at age 5, he’s progressed to “hammerhead,” the school’s program for advanced swimmers.

Eric has moderate to severe autism, a developmental disorder often manifesting itself in difficulty with communication or social skills and repetitive behaviors. Helping him learn to be comfortable in water was a concern for his family. After a failed attempt with a private instructor at home, Eric’s family found Hubbard.

So far the experience has been nothing but positive.

“He likes to swim, he likes his teachers, he likes all his awards,” said Liz Ellertson, a family friend who takes Eric to his lessons.

Eric’s story is one Hubbard hopes to duplicate. In that spirit, the school this year started an Autism Family Swim on the fourth Saturday of every month. Parents are encouraged to bring autistic children to the Hubbard’s Mesa branch at Riverview off Dobson Road and Loop 202 and spend time in their two heated pools.

This month’s swim is the second since the program started and will be from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday and costs $5 per family.

Bob Hubbard, the school’s co-owner, said one reason for the family swim is because parents often might not know their own child’s capabilities. Water provides an instant, all encompassing sensory feedback that many, especially autistic, children find soothing, he said.

“We just feel that kids with autism and water are a good mix,” school co-owner Bob Hubbard said.

The one lesson Hubbard learned since starting the school is never to put expectations on a child, he said. In addition to the work with autistic children, the school has helped kids with cerebral palsy, blindness or missing limbs swim as well as anyone.

“The rewarding thing is having a parent cry on your pool deck when their child accomplishes something impossible,” Hubbard said.

The school focuses on levels, colorfully named after animals such as tadpole, jellyfish or lobster, that set baselines for how comfortable a child is in the water and what skills they’ve acquired. For example, once a child is comfortable enough to get into the pool without crying, open their eyes underwater, and exit the pool by themselves, they can graduate from “tadpole” to “goldfish.”

Hubbard and his wife, Kathy, first opened their school in October 1999. The business now includes locations in Phoenix, Peoria and Mesa and teaches about 4,000 children. The three schools teach a combined total of about 75 special-needs children a week.

Despite the number of students, Hubbard stressed that 90 percent of the teaching is still one-on-one. All special-needs children start off with individual lessons and, depending on progress, might join the mainstream programs. Even then, instructors will only teach up to four children at a time, he said.

“Every child’s half hour is their half hour,” Hubbard said.

Patricia Fuller’s son, David, gets that half hour every Friday and Saturday.

David, 7, has high-functioning autism and started attending Hubbard a year and a half ago. Fuller had searched for a place specializing in teaching special-needs children. David’s school had no suggestions for her. She ran across Hubbard while taking David to a play center next door.

Since discovering Hubbard, Fuller has sent fliers to her son’s school, reached out to other parents and praised the school on Facebook, she said.

Fuller said since joining she’s been impressed with the staff’s dealings with autistic children like David. The school’s habit of giving out ribbons and other prizes as kids advance through the levels is also something autistic children like David respond well to, she said.

“He loves it — capital “L” — loves it,” Fuller said.