ATLANTA — As Atlanta gets ready for the summer, swim safety officials want people to make sure safety is on their minds.
The City of Atlanta is preparing to open its outdoor pools ahead of Memorial Day weekend. Splash pads are already open. This week, crews could be seen clearing debris out of the pools and cleaning the area around the water.
Askia Bashir, an aquatics supervisor at the CT Martin Natatorium in Southwest Atlanta, said staff is expecting more than 1,000 kids a day to use city pools this summer.
"We took a blow in the last three years, losing over 50 percent of lifeguards," Bashir said. "It's very important that we teach our Black and brown communities how to swim and be introduced to water safety."
Bashir's family helped create the aquatics program during the 1980s with an emphasis on water safety. Bashir swam in Atlanta pools during camps, trained to become a lifeguard and now holds a job at the city's pools.
Marcus Byams, the city's aquatics director, said a lifeguard shortage last year forced a couple of Atlanta's pools to close. Now, he's recruiting skilled teens and young adults to become lifeguards this year. The city is looking for interested candidates before the end of May.
"We service about 350 to 400 students," Byams said. "Out of that number, we were able to determine, based on their water skills on our pre-assessment guidelines, then we place them in a class to be certified. Being able to work at a local pool in your neighborhood or near your house or school is another way of giving back to your community.”
Dr. Tessa Clemens, a health scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said learning basic water safety skills can help prevent drownings. She said drowning is the leading cause of death in kids ages one to four. She said children with autism are at an increased risk of drowning.
"So last year, there were 138 drowning deaths that occurred in Georgia, and about one in five of those deaths occurred in a pool," Clemens said.
According to the CDC, about half of drownings in Georgia in 2022 happened in rivers, lakes or ponds. A CDC study stated Black people under the age of 30 are likely to drown one-and-a-half more times than white people. Native Americans under 30 are twice as likely to drown than white people, according to data.
A national study by the USA Swimming Foundation found 64 percent of Black children cannot swim compared to 40 percent of white children. It listed institutional racism, myths and stereotypes and an inherited fear of drowning as contributing causes to that data.
Avoiding risks for drowning
According to the CDC, factors that raise the risk of drowning include open access to water, having a medical condition or consuming alcohol.
"Even if children have had swimming lessons, they should be closely and constantly supervised by a responsible adult," Clemens said. "Drowning can happen very quickly and very quietly."
Clemens said adults should also avoid distraction when supervising their children around water. Fencing in pools can help, along with wearing life jackets in pools and other bodies of water. She said personal flotation devices can be more effective than water wings. The health scientist suggested kids as young as one learn how to behave in and around water.
Bashir said parents should reach out to friends who know how to swim or can teach swimming to get their kids used to water.
"Being in the water, and having some type of knowledge is key," Bashir said. "The earlier they’re unafraid and the earlier they’re eager to learn, it will open your eyes and it will open the rest of your world to be able to save your life, prevent someone else from drowning. It takes a weight off your shoulders to know they have some type of lifesaving skill that’s going to take them on throughout their life.”