Children's Safety Zone

The canal drowning of a 6-year-old Gilbert boy in April has inspired nearly 4,000 people to join a grass-roots effort to raise awareness and boost safety around the Valley’s unprotected waterways.

“Barriers 4 Brenan,” an online group with members in at least a dozen states, wants to help families avoid the tragedy that struck the Thomson home five months ago.

On April 9, Brenan Thomson went out for an afternoon bike ride with his 5-year-old brother, Rylen.

Neither came back.

With both boys missing, their father, Cody, called police and began to search. He found their bikes alongside a nearby canal, next to one pair of shoes.

A bystander found Rylen and pulled him – still breathing – from the water. A police officer found Brenan, who wasn’t breathing and had no pulse. He died that night.

News of Brenan’s death lit a fire within West Valley resident Shawna Phillians, founder of “Barriers 4 Brenan.” Phillians said the boy resembled her youngest son, Brayden.

“It terrifies me,” said Phillians, a mother of three. “I hate water. I hate water with kids.

“I don’t understand why they let people at these canals. You see people fishing in there. You see kids back there, riding their bikes or throwing rocks in the water.”

Although canal drownings are dwarfed by the number of pool-related incidents, they have become an annual occurrence.

In 2009, there were four life-threatening incidents at canals, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

There were two incidents in 2008, three in 2007 and eight in 2006, according to the DHS. At least six of those incidents involved children under 15.

Lori Schmidt, president of the Drowning Prevention Coalition in Phoenix, said the public needs to be reminded of the danger posed by unprotected canals.

“There’s not a lot of materials about water safety when it comes to canals,” Schmidt said. “We have a lot of people moving into town who aren’t aware of these hazards, sometimes which are right next to their backyard.”

Terri Marino, a Roswell, N.M., resident who lived near Phoenix’s Grand Canal in the late 1970s, said she nearly drowned while collecting seashells on the canal bank.

When one of her friends fell in, Marino, then 7 years old, reached down to try to pull him out. The boy panicked and pulled Marino into and under the water.

An onlooker dove into the water to help, but the current was too strong for him to swim to the children, Marino said. A few boys walking along the canal with bamboo sticks were finally able to help pull them out.

“I have always looked at all those canals and wondered why they were not more secure,” Marino said.

Most canals around the Valley are owned by Salt River Project, Central Arizona Project and large irrigation districts such as the Roosevelt Water Conservation District.

Roosevelt Associate General Manager Shane Leonard said his district, which owns 110 miles of canals and ditches in the East Valley, can’t afford to put up fences but may consider other safety measures, such as tethers, stairs or slope changes.

For now, the district works with homeowners associations to educate residents and has tried to influence developers to design neighborhoods that draw people away from canals, not toward them.

“We’ve been largely unsuccessful in that,” Leonard said. “Unfortunately, a canal to them (developers) is an amenity.”

SRP owns 1,300 miles of canals and ditches, including the Grand Canal.

Phillians recently wrote to SRP to ask about installing barriers in certain areas and received a letter from Molly Greene, senior government-relations representative.

“While it is tragic that any children get out of their parents’ sight and play in a canal, there are a variety of reasons why we haven’t fenced them in to date,” Greene wrote. “Primarily, we believe that trying to keep everyone out is impossible.”

Greene said the company has “a very robust and substantial educational effort, including posted warnings” at the canals.

SRP partners with teachers across the Valley to enhance water-safety education, spokesman Jeff Lane said. The company provides videos and coloring books about water and canal safety.

In addition, SRP’s “Safety Connection” program includes about 60 events per year and reached an estimated 250,000 people in 2010, Lane said.

“I also can’t help but add that the canals preceded the neighborhoods, so prospective residents have some knowledge of the locations and accessibility of the waterways from their respective homes,” wrote Greene, who declined to comment further when contacted by The Republic.

While “Barriers 4 Brenan” faces an uphill battle in pushing for fences around canals, Phillians hopes her education efforts will help save lives.

“Kids don’t know the dangers of canals. They don’t understand the undercurrents and how deep these canals are,” she said.

Eventually, Phillians said she’d like to get a program into Valley schools to inform kids about the danger of canals.

Gilbert resident Heather Plaza said Brenan’s death has already brought a new level of awareness to her family.

“My son was in Brenan’s class this year. . . . It made us aware that we had not talked with our boys about canals and the dangers associated with them,” Plaza wrote on the “Barriers 4 Brenan” Facebook page.

PHOENIX – A 4-year-old boy is dead, after being pulled out of a backyard pool by his mother. He was rushed to Phoenix Children’s Hospital but sadly, could not be revived.

The call came in just after 6 p.m. in the area of 16th St and Dunlap in north Phoenix.

According to Phoenix Fire, the 4-year-old little boy was playing in the backyard with his 6-year old brother and mom. At some point mom went to check on him, and that’s when she found him in the water unresponsive.

“Mother did exactly what she needed to do, call 911, begin CPR. Fire crews got here worked quickly trying to revive him, the patient transported in very critical condition,” says Phoenix Fire Capt. Troy Caskey.

Neighbors who live just a few doors down say all three children in the family were good swimmers — that the parents always kept watch. They say this tragedy has to serve as a reminder that no one can ever be too careful.

The incident is under investigation, which is standard procedure in a drowning case. As for a fence, Phoenix Police tell us the family had a barrier around the pool but it wasn’t a traditional pool fence.

Nicole Scrivo vowed she would “never be one of those moms,” the ones who lose track of their children, even for a few seconds, only to find them struggling in the water of the backyard pool.

But then, during just a normal day at her Scottsdale home about four years ago, she heard her young daughter Natalie say, “Look, Mom. Jacob’s swimming.”

Only Jacob was 11 months. And he didn’t know how to swim. Jolted into awareness, Scrivo plucked him from the water. “He was gasping,” she recalled. She suddenly knew just how easy losing sight of a child could be, even if you’re only a few steps away. “I had been exhausted and distracted by the pool vacuum,” she said.

So Scrivo made a different vow. As Jacob turned 1, she enrolled him in a swim program. Her daughters, Natalie, 7, and Emily, 3, have completed the same program through Infant Swimming Resource, a Florida-based business that has instructors in the Valley.

slideshow Valley drowning prevention for infants

Swim lessons, water awareness, pool fences, swim vests and increased monitoring are some of the steps parents take to help safeguard their children around water. The tools have never been more needed.

So far this year, 15 children younger than 12 have drowned in Maricopa County, the same number as this time last year, according to statistics compiled by the Children’s Safety Zone for the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona.

Historically, drownings happen nearly every month of the year in the Valley.

It’s a horrifying statistic and unfortunately, “it’s our culture,” part of what happens being in a Southwestern climate, said Dr. David Beyda, a pediatric critical-care specialist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “We keep trying to tell parents every year, we keep trying to bring attention to children drowning.”

He said getting children into swim programs that teach water safety should just be one of the layers used to prevent drowning.

“You don’t want to have a false sense of security,” he said. Yet programs that help a child know how to turn onto their backs to float or swim to the side of the pool are “better than nothing.”

For years, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that swim instruction not be given to children 3 and younger because they were not developmentally ready and could result in hypothermia and lung damage from pool chemicals. But a year ago, that policy changed. The evidence no longer supports that advice.

Dr. Jeffrey Weiss, a pediatric hospitalist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, was the lead writer in an AAP report that said a parent’s decision to teach a child to swim should be based on the child’s frequency of exposure to water and emotional and physical maturity.

Becky Harris, an instructor with Infant Swimming Resource, teaches children 6 months and older. But age is only one factor.

“They have to have the reflex that helps you gag, be able to turn their head and roll front to back,” she said.

In addition, parents have to fill out an extensive medical background form that she said is reviewed by a medical team.

Each child receives 10-minute sessions, five days a week for four to six weeks, at a cost of $85 per week, excluding registration. At the end of the sessions, children 6 to 12 months old should be able to go from being face down to floating on their back, and to make noise to attract help, Harris said.

“They don’t have cognition to figure out how to swim to the side or have the strength,” she said.

Kids older than 1 “have the motor skills to formulate a plan,” she said. “We want them to problem-solve, gather information and then swim. When they get tired, they can just roll on their back and float.”

Harris has heard from skeptics. During one class she held at a public pool, a woman who was listening bristled at hearing the child cry as the short lesson began. “She said, ‘She doesn’t like that very much, does she? Why are you doing that to her?’ “

Harris quietly responded. “Her brother drowned last year and that’s why we’re here,” she said, motioning to the child’s mother.

Bob Hubbard of the Hubbard Family Swim School has heard the concerns of some people about teaching a child too young. Classes at his Valley-wide school also start at 6 months. “But research is saying that exposing them to water, getting them to float” can help prevent drownings, he said.

“We expect mom and dad to be in the water with them,” Hubbard said. “We view the parent as the student and the parent as the teacher.”

On Wednesday, Joe Kenyon smiled as he watched his 11-month-old son, J, easily flip from his chest to his back time and again during a swim lesson with Harris. Kenyon said they started him at 9 months, not wanting to wait any longer. “We have a pool, so we wanted to take every precaution.”

Andrew Jupp was another proud parent during another lesson.

“He loves it so much,” he said of his 17-month-old son, Ryder. “You see so many drownings in the news, we think of this as cheap insurance.”

Rescue workers found a Goodyear woman floating in her pool at about 2:30 p.m. on Sunday after a neighbor called 911.

Fire department officials said she was not breathing and didn’t have a heartbeat. Rescue workers treated her at the scene and said they were able to get a slight pulse from her.

The 58-year-old woman was taken to a West Valley hospital where she remains in critical condition. Officials do not know if she has suffered any brain damage or how long she was under water.

The woman has not been identified by officials but they said she lives alone in the Estrella Mountain community.

On Monday, Officials told CBS 5 News that a medical condition was most likely the cause.

We are dedicated to saving children this swim season with our Kristi’s Kids, News4 Lifesaver program. We are getting the word out about the A.B.C’s of swim safety.

We caught-up with one our News4 Lifesaver partner Rural/Metro Fire as they took the message to first graders at Ironwood Elementary.

“We’re here because we want to talk to you guys about being water safe.”

Anne Marie Braswell is with Rural/Metro Fire. She’s talking to first graders because, she says, this age group is so receptive.

“And they want to go home and share important information with their parents and their siblings.”

The information she wants them to share?

“The A.B.C.’s are adult supervision, barriers around any body of water, specifically pools. And classes. Specifically swim classes for our kids and CPR classes for adults.”

It’s important for Rural/Metro’s first responders to make an impact on these young kids.

“The worst call that any of our fire fighters can go on, is a pediatric drowning.”

So the kids are hearing about Stuey the duck. They’re filling out work sheets, to help them remember the A.B.C’S. They get to take a Stuey the duck visor home and they make a water safety pledge.

“We really want them to take ownership of their water safety,” says Braswell.

So are the first graders soaking it all up?

“That an adult should always be watching you and you should take classes and…and make sure there’s a fence around the pool,” says first-grader Lucas Martes.

And Isabella Ebert?

“A is for adult supervision. B is for a gate. And then C is for classes!”

First graders are receptive but all kids need to be taught and reminded. Remember, if you’re watching the kids, by the pool we have free water watcher whistles for you. Just swing by the station at 209 W. Elm St. to pick one up.