Ms. Cory said. “All this is going to do is protect children.’
This law would do nothing to protect the children, it would just make $1 milion of insurance proceeds available to parents like Ms. Cory. If she really wanted to help children, her legislation would set standards for safety and supervision.
don’t try to make this legislation out to be anything but what it is – A PROFIT CENTER.
Mike/Henry,
Their hope was thast the legislation would result in the following:
“Ruestman said that by requiring the insurance, the bill would hopefully get insurance companies underwriting the policies to make sure the parks remain safe”
Quite frankly, I think they should enact safety codes and regulations and not rely on private enterprises to determine sufficient safeguards. Additionally, fines of “$100 per day or a day in jail” to me does not seem to be an adequate deterrence to non-compliance.
One must question the parents judgement allowing a 6 year old to go on a field trip to a swimming park in the first place. Regardless of what people think, swimming, or just playing in the water is dangerous. The park does not have the duty to guarantee 100% safety for people who use its facility. The primary responsibility lies with the parent, or the person/persons assigned to be responsible for the child. Even under the best circumstances it is impossible for lifeguards to see every person in a pool 100% of the time.
I know this is only one person’s view, but if it is to be believed, it does sound like there should be criminal negligence against this park. None of this will bring this little guy back to life, unfortunately, but it does serve as a warning to those of us with small children.
Found this doing some online searching on the subject:
This is just sad but worth saying something about. Here in Joplin, MO today a six year old boy drowned at a local water park (The Swimmin’ Hole) that my niece works at. She told me about this earlier today and the whole thing was just sad.
Here is the back story, Joplin Journalism at it’s finest… via KOAM (CBS Affiliate) but you would never know that by looking at their news article link. The “someone” mentioned in the article was my niece Amber who I’m told worked on the boy for over 20 minutes until the ambulance showed up.
The local ABC / NBC Affiliates had even less to report. The story was filed at 4:31 PM and although it mentions the boys name they state that the boys name was not release. Please learn how to update your story guys. This is just horrible (I did bold the mistake):
An afternoon summer outing turns fatal. Newton County emergency crews were called to the Swimming Hole water park near Joplin about one o’clock this afternoon. Six year Ethan Cory from Joplin was pulled from the water and taken to St. Johns Regional Medical center. Efforts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the hospital… The name of the child has not yet been released. An autopsy is planned for tomorrow morning to determine the actual cause of death. The case remains under investigation.
The Joplin Globe listed the boy’s age as being 61 but they caught the mistake and fixed it. Evidentially people do read what’s on their site. KSN could learn a lesson from them…
I’m not a journalist nor do I pretend to be one, but here is what I know based on my conversation with Amber:
My niece was scheduled to work at 11 AM today but her shift was moved back to 1 PM so that the owners could cut some expenses. (BTW, $17 was the price for two extra hours of having a certified life guard).
When she came in at 12:45 PM there was a little boy lifeless on the ground for over 15 minutes. His head was not tilted back and he still had water in his lungs which meant that no one properly performed CPR on him prior to her getting there. She stated that one person tried but either didn’t do it right or didn’t know what he was doing because of the previously stated “state” that he was in.
She immediately started performing CPR on the boy from the time she got there until the Ambulance arrived but it was too late yet she performed it for what I’m told was over 20 minutes.
The owner of the property stated that they had seven certified lifeguards on staff whereas they only had two people working today that were “certified”. My niece is a certified lifeguard and to give CPR.
She said one little boy told the employee at the bottom of the slide where they found him three times that a little boy was under the slide. Finally on the third complaint the employee checked the pool and found the boy and pulled him out.
The boy that drowned was on a trip with the local Boys and Girls Club of Joplin.
My niece walked away with the experience as being told that she was not responsible for the accident since she wasn’t clocked in and to get to work after it was over.
The park remained open for the rest of the day.
Neither the park nor the Joplin Boys and Girls Club had anything to say.
My niece has had several paychecks that were not given to her due to the park owners “forgetting” to pay her or due to money shortages. (More then enough reason to quit.)
She quit after being told to go to the top of the slide and watch the kids. She couldn’t believe (nor could I for that matter) that the water park would remain over or try to lie to the police when the park gave their report despite multiple employees contradicting manager / operator’s”story”.
The water park should have been shut down or should have at least voluntarily shut down due to the nature of what occurred today. From what my niece told me I’m saddened to think that it takes something of this nature to open people’s eyes. If they were breaking the law by not having enough people, not paying people, and not having properly trained staff then they should be closed down and dealt with criminally.
I’m not sure what to think of our local Boys and Girls Club honestly. When you take your kids there you’re trusting that they will be safer then the alternative. I’m told that the director was there at the pool when the accident happened and was beside himself. I would like to think that this is all the park’s fault but some part of me may unfairly question how a six year old could be at a water park without someone being around.
My heart does go out to his family. I can’t imagine the pain, questions, sadness, and other emotions that they must be going through.
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Ms. Cory said. “All this is going to do is protect children.’
This law would do nothing to protect the children, it would just make $1 milion of insurance proceeds available to parents like Ms. Cory. If she really wanted to help children, her legislation would set standards for safety and supervision.
don’t try to make this legislation out to be anything but what it is – A PROFIT CENTER.
Mike,
You beat me to it. don’t make these places carry more insurance, MAKE THEM KEEP THE ESTABLISHMENT SAFE SO THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
“Ma’am, your son is dead, but you get a couple million in the bank.”
How freakin’ stupid!!!!!!!!!
Mike/Henry,
Their hope was thast the legislation would result in the following:
“Ruestman said that by requiring the insurance, the bill would hopefully get insurance companies underwriting the policies to make sure the parks remain safe”
Quite frankly, I think they should enact safety codes and regulations and not rely on private enterprises to determine sufficient safeguards. Additionally, fines of “$100 per day or a day in jail” to me does not seem to be an adequate deterrence to non-compliance.
One must question the parents judgement allowing a 6 year old to go on a field trip to a swimming park in the first place. Regardless of what people think, swimming, or just playing in the water is dangerous. The park does not have the duty to guarantee 100% safety for people who use its facility. The primary responsibility lies with the parent, or the person/persons assigned to be responsible for the child. Even under the best circumstances it is impossible for lifeguards to see every person in a pool 100% of the time.
I know this is only one person’s view, but if it is to be believed, it does sound like there should be criminal negligence against this park. None of this will bring this little guy back to life, unfortunately, but it does serve as a warning to those of us with small children.
Found this doing some online searching on the subject:
This is just sad but worth saying something about. Here in Joplin, MO today a six year old boy drowned at a local water park (The Swimmin’ Hole) that my niece works at. She told me about this earlier today and the whole thing was just sad.
Here is the back story, Joplin Journalism at it’s finest… via KOAM (CBS Affiliate) but you would never know that by looking at their news article link. The “someone” mentioned in the article was my niece Amber who I’m told worked on the boy for over 20 minutes until the ambulance showed up.
The local ABC / NBC Affiliates had even less to report. The story was filed at 4:31 PM and although it mentions the boys name they state that the boys name was not release. Please learn how to update your story guys. This is just horrible (I did bold the mistake):
An afternoon summer outing turns fatal. Newton County emergency crews were called to the Swimming Hole water park near Joplin about one o’clock this afternoon. Six year Ethan Cory from Joplin was pulled from the water and taken to St. Johns Regional Medical center. Efforts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the hospital… The name of the child has not yet been released. An autopsy is planned for tomorrow morning to determine the actual cause of death. The case remains under investigation.
The Joplin Globe listed the boy’s age as being 61 but they caught the mistake and fixed it. Evidentially people do read what’s on their site. KSN could learn a lesson from them…
I’m not a journalist nor do I pretend to be one, but here is what I know based on my conversation with Amber:
My niece was scheduled to work at 11 AM today but her shift was moved back to 1 PM so that the owners could cut some expenses. (BTW, $17 was the price for two extra hours of having a certified life guard).
When she came in at 12:45 PM there was a little boy lifeless on the ground for over 15 minutes. His head was not tilted back and he still had water in his lungs which meant that no one properly performed CPR on him prior to her getting there. She stated that one person tried but either didn’t do it right or didn’t know what he was doing because of the previously stated “state” that he was in.
She immediately started performing CPR on the boy from the time she got there until the Ambulance arrived but it was too late yet she performed it for what I’m told was over 20 minutes.
The owner of the property stated that they had seven certified lifeguards on staff whereas they only had two people working today that were “certified”. My niece is a certified lifeguard and to give CPR.
She said one little boy told the employee at the bottom of the slide where they found him three times that a little boy was under the slide. Finally on the third complaint the employee checked the pool and found the boy and pulled him out.
The boy that drowned was on a trip with the local Boys and Girls Club of Joplin.
My niece walked away with the experience as being told that she was not responsible for the accident since she wasn’t clocked in and to get to work after it was over.
The park remained open for the rest of the day.
Neither the park nor the Joplin Boys and Girls Club had anything to say.
My niece has had several paychecks that were not given to her due to the park owners “forgetting” to pay her or due to money shortages. (More then enough reason to quit.)
She quit after being told to go to the top of the slide and watch the kids. She couldn’t believe (nor could I for that matter) that the water park would remain over or try to lie to the police when the park gave their report despite multiple employees contradicting manager / operator’s”story”.
The water park should have been shut down or should have at least voluntarily shut down due to the nature of what occurred today. From what my niece told me I’m saddened to think that it takes something of this nature to open people’s eyes. If they were breaking the law by not having enough people, not paying people, and not having properly trained staff then they should be closed down and dealt with criminally.
I’m not sure what to think of our local Boys and Girls Club honestly. When you take your kids there you’re trusting that they will be safer then the alternative. I’m told that the director was there at the pool when the accident happened and was beside himself. I would like to think that this is all the park’s fault but some part of me may unfairly question how a six year old could be at a water park without someone being around.
My heart does go out to his family. I can’t imagine the pain, questions, sadness, and other emotions that they must be going through.
Ethan Cory did not die from drowning but from suffication from a candy jawbreaker lodged in his throat!! Check it out