Next Time We’ll Let Him Drown
I was a lifeguard for six years at a municipal pool in my hometown. We had clear-cut rules, like a required swim test to go to the deep end (swim the width of the pool without touching the ground and tread water for one minute) and no life jackets in the deep end. This was upheld for everyone; swim team stars and visitors alike had to pass the test, and pass again if there was doubt. It was a small town, so the lifeguards knew who was who and it was a simple system.
Over the Fourth of July weekend my last year there, we had a family come into town. They had this a boy who was maybe four, five, or six, who insisted he could swim fine enough to go to the deep end. I told him he had to pass the test first.
Mother: “We’re from [City], and they let him swim in the deep end there! He can swim fine!”
Me: “I don’t care. Rules are rules; he has to pass the test here.”
She huffed and went and sat in the observation area. Her son failed the test more than once with more than one lifeguard.
The kid still ran right to the deep end. Naturally, he swam out to the middle, where none of the tools we use to drag people to the side can reach, and just his face was above the water. Then, he started moving his arms to push himself under and back up, since he wasn’t able to touch the ground, and started paddling frantically but not moving anywhere.
Where I was trained, this is active drowning. I was on the floor, so I jumped in and swam the kid to the side as he kicked me and yelled to his mom. I put him on the wall and said he had to stay in the shallow end. I got out, and the mom got in my face yelling.
Mother: “Why would you do that?! He was fine. That’s just how he swims.”
I simply told her that was active drowning and the other floor lifeguard backed me up. She took all her kids and left — not without getting the number of my boss, who just told her, “Sorry my lifeguard saved your kid.”
I’ll never forget that. I kept my training for nine years, and that was the first and only time I had to jump in after someone (we usually could mediate another way but mostly all the kids that came were very good swimmers because they were there daily), and the only thing the parent had to say was, “Why would you do that?”
This story is part of our Fourth-Of-July-themed roundup!
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Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
