After two toddlers died and a third was rescued from a California daycare pool last week, water safety and drowning prevention advocates said the preventable “tragic” incident raises several red flags for parents and caregivers.
The San Jose Police Department (SJPD) is investigating what led to the Oct. 2 drowning deaths of 18-month-old Payton Alexandria Cobb, of Hollister, and Lillian Hanan, 1, of San Jose. A third child who was pulled from the pool was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, according to SJPD. The incident prompted the California Department of Social Services (DSS) to issue a temporary license suspension order to Happy Happy Daycare, located on Fleetwood Drive in San Jose, on Thursday, according to local media. The owners also face an $11,000 fine, local station KTVU reports.
The SJPD said at last week’s press conference that no charges had been filed against the daycare owner at the time, but that the investigation was ongoing.
Newsweek reached out via email Sunday to SJPD for comment and an update on the case.
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, according to statistics from the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA), and advocates say the number of annual deaths is “going in the wrong direction.”
“Mostly we think of it as gun accidents or car accidents or sleep incidents, but for children ages 1 to 4, the leading cause of death is drowning,” said NDPA Executive Director Adam Katchmarchi Newsweek in a phone interview on Sunday. “Unfortunately, our drowning rates over the last few years since COVID have been going in the wrong direction.”
Exacerbating the problem is that people are uninformed when it comes to water safety and are often unaware that drowning is quick and silent, Katchmarchi said.
Two boys dive into the pool. Water safety advocates gave Newsweek tips to prevent drowning after three young children fell into a daycare pool and drowned, resulting in two deaths. Thomas Lohnes/Getty
“The public just doesn’t have a good understanding of what drowning is,” Katchmarchi said. “We are so used to the Hollywood or TV version of drowning, which is not the most accurate representation of a real drowning victim. It is a quick battle, from 20 to 60 seconds, and it is often silent. With children there is no such thing, it will be shouting, calling for help.”
Happy Happy Daycare, where three young children drowned on Oct. 2, was licensed in early 2021 and is managed by Nina Fathizadeh and Shahin Shenas, according to online DSS records. Records show the daycare was cited six times, with state investigators finding the daycare was caring for too many infants at one time, not checking on enough infants during sleep and allowing an adult employee to work without a proper criminal record, among other concerns.
At the time of publication, it was not clear how many adults and children were in the kindergarten when the drownings occurred.
The backyard pool caused problems before the daycare permit was issued, with state inspectors identifying concerns about the fence surrounding the pool deck and pool access and visibility. The owners had to correct the problems to “ensure there is no immediate danger to the health and safety of children in care.”
However, state inspectors noted that the pool at Happy Happy Daycare was “completely fenced” and that the fence was at least five feet high with a door that “self-closes and has a self-closing device,” according to a January DSS facility evaluation report in 2023
At the time of publication, it was not clear how the children managed to get into the water last week.
Newsweek reached out to Happy Happy Daycare for comment via the carer’s website and Facebook page.
Doug Forbes, who founded the Los Angeles-based Meow Meow Foundation in memory of his late daughter Roxie, who drowned at summer camp at age 6, called on state officials to mandate additional safety measures for child care facilities that have access to water.
Forbes said Newsweek in a phone interview Sunday that he called for increased water safety measures, including video surveillance, alarms, water safety education and emergency plans, to help curb preventable drownings. It is not clear what measures, other than the fence listed in the DSS report, were in use by Happy Happy Daycare at the time of the incident.
“The incident in San Jose is beyond tragic,” Forbes said. “You never think an incident like San Jose can happen to you or your child until it happens. I’m a witness to that. I’ve lived through it. And it doesn’t just end with that triple drowning. The way I always say, it takes a village to help and protect a child and it takes a village to harm him. And in this case, we can’t specifically point the finger only at the daycare workers. We have to look at the system that surrounds that daycare operation.”
Forbes said the most important factor in drowning prevention is for adults to pay attention to children “every minute” whenever there’s water nearby, the 59-year-old child safety advocate said, noting that roughly 80 percent of child drownings happen in the presence of an adult.
He said that in addition to keeping a close eye on children, “and not on their phones,” parents and guardians must ensure there are two barriers preventing access to the water source.
“Unfortunately, systemic failures continue to facilitate these preventable drownings and deaths of our most precious cargo,” Forbes said. Newsweek. “So as a parent, especially for daycare or camp, you can never ask enough questions or demand enough documentation or evidence. Ask as many questions as you need until you feel comfortable because you don’t want to live like me and regret it. I didn’t ask enough questions . I didn’t do enough due diligence.”
Katchmarchi warns that people must understand that “water itself is dangerous.”
“I would recommend that parents consider choosing daycare centers that don’t have swimming pools,” he said Newsweek. “While we want kids to become water-competent and we want them to have those experiences in the water, we have to consider the risk.”
He said that in the San Jose case, tools that were supposed to help prevent drowning failed. Katchmarchi said the children “somehow” managed to get around the pool fence and gate, along with a “brief lack of supervision”, resulting in the “tragic” ordeal.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn