Posted on: Tuesday, May 4, 2004
EDITORIAL
Water safety education should be mandatory
It's important to note that this week is National Safe Kids week. Why? Because we're coming up to the volatile summer season when children have less supervision and spend more time outdoors.
According to state Department of Health statistics, drowning is the second most common source of fatal injuries among children from newborns to 14-year-olds.
That's why in Hawai'i, we're focusing this year on water safety. There has been a rash of visitor drownings, which is tragic, but we are also concerned about our own keiki. Not everyone in the Islands spends time in or near water. Moreover, not everyone can swim.
One study by the city Department of Parks and Recreation found that 70 percent of youngsters ages 7 to 14 could not swim 50 yards, which is troubling when you consider we're the only state surrounded by water.
Drowning danger is associated with big surf and difficult seas. But the sad truth is that most child drownings occur in swimming pools and shallow water, such as Ala Moana Beach Park, where families are distracted and less attuned to water dangers.
Strangely enough, there is no statewide water safety program in Hawai'i, nor a mandatory swimming requirement in the public schools.
Other coastal states have water safety programs that Hawai'i could adopt. One letter writer described an ocean-awareness program that was a mandatory physical education requirement when he attended school in Orange County, Calif.
In addition to meeting PE requirements, the program taught all aspects of ocean awareness, and students had to pass qualifying tests in the swimming pool, with lifeguard skill examinations that included CPR and "what if" scenarios in the event of an emergency.
A promising Junior Lifeguard program on O'ahu, which teaches both swimming safety and ocean awareness, may gradually bring Hawai'i up to speed in this area.
Today, the letter writer lives on the North Shore and has been involved in many rescues around O'ahu. It's ironic that he learned these skills in California rather than the Aloha State, where water safety ought to be firmly embedded in the school curriculum.
As they say in the safety industry, prevention, prevention, prevention.
