Jan 2012: A 15-year-old freshman student, Marcum Asiamah, drowned during
a high school gym class at East Hartford High School. His family said he was excited to learn
to swim during his gym class. Adults were present when students saw Marcum at the bottom
of the pool. The teacher jumped in and performed CPR until first responders arrived. The teen
was rushed to Hartford
Hospital but did not
survive and was pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital. the autopsy determined he was the victim of an accidental drowning.
Word of the accident spread quickly and many parents for
calling their children to make sure they were safe. "A lot of the kids were freaked out
and they were starting rumors about it," student Tracy Holmes said. "How
do you let that happen?" said Solese Natta, another parent at the school. School Superintendent Mark Zito says the drowning remains
under investigation. News 8 even
called the CT State Department of Education to ask what the rules are for
school's with pools. The representative reached said “They said they will look
into this.” Manchester School
Superintendent Mark Zito said in a prepared statement:
"Today there
was a tragic event at East
Hartford High School
where a student drowned. The incident is under investigation and we have no
findings that we can share with you at this time. Student safety is of
paramount concern and the school district will continue to work with the East
Hartford Police Department to investigate this incident. The pool will
remain closed pending this investigation. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the
family and friends of the student involved in this incident. The school
district is planning to provide grief counseling and support for students,
faculty, and staff. The details of that support will be made available
shortly."
Students who were at the pool when the incident
happened were sent home early. Some other parents elected to
pick their children up from school early due to the incident. Superintendent Mark Zito,
visited the family's home to offer condolences and a referral to a
therapist to help them cope with their loss. Grief counselors were be available for students, faculty and staff at school the next day. A vigil was held two days later on a friday night at 5:30 p.m. so students can come together to remember this young student. At the candlelight
vigil, Joshua Dillon, president of the East Hartford High School student
council, asked students to speak, and a few accepted, offering prayers and
condolences to the family.
Points for Discussion:
- Don't wait for a tragedy to occur to determine what are the best safety practices for your facilities, and if there are associated risks, how you can mitigate them to an acceptable level.
- A swimming pool in your school offers unique opportunities for your students and staff as well as unique risks (drowning, head injuries due to diving, chlorine chemicals, etc.).
- Are there state department of education guidance or guidelines for pools at educational institutions, if not, why not?
- Some safety procedures to discuss:
- In military swim training or waterborne activities, those individuals who are non-swimmers and poor swimmers are identified and handled differently from those who can swim.
- Establishing a supervised peer buddy system between students can aid in a student not wandering off or doing their own thing. This is an added layer to existing supervision and increasing student's level of awareness of looking out for each other.
- The knee-jerk reaction is to close the pool indefinitely. While this is safest thing to do from a litigious standpoint, more good can be done by teaching children to swim and float to prevent further drownings.
- Comment on School Leadership: While not knowing the results of the drowning investigation, I applaud the superintendent actually visiting the family to offer his condolences and support to them. This type of personalized leadership is often unrecognized by people in educational leadership positions due to a lack of leadership education and training, and a fear of litigation.