ORLANDO, Fla. — According to the CDC, drowning is the top cause of accidental deaths of children under the age of 4.
In Florida, the stakes are even higher with hundreds of thousands of pools, lakes, and of course, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
Despite the danger, survival swim schools were not deemed essential businesses under Florida’s stay at home order.
At Swim Life in Sanford, classes are taught one-on-one to children as young as six-months-old. The owners were hopeful they’d be able to stay open with social distancing in place, but even though the lessons they teach are life-saving, they were not deemed essential.
“It's imperative that every child learn water skills if they're in Florida,” Kelly Wiggins said.
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Each week, dozens of local families rely on Kelly Wiggins for those life-saving lessons. This week alone, her business would have had nearly 200 lessons. Instead, her pool’s cover has stayed on for weeks.
“We’re getting calls and texts every day of families begging us to allow their children to get in lessons, because they’re afraid their child is going to wander away from supervision, and fall in a pool, and die,” Wiggins said.
9 Investigates found so far this year, 15 children have drowned in Florida. 10 of the drownings have happened since the pandemic began. That includes:
- a 5-year-old Marion County girl who died on March 19 in her family’s backyard pool
- a 1-year-old who died at a hotel pool in Osceola County on March 28
- a Seminole County boy who died last week, after slipping out the door of his home and into his family’s pool undetected
“Even if somebody doesn't have a backyard pool of their own, chances are their neighbor does, or their homeowner’s association does, or grandma does, or an aunt, or a best friend,” Wiggins said.
Now, Wiggins and other survival swim instructors are circulating a petition, hoping the Governor will create an exemption to allow their lessons to start again.
“Nobody’s going to die because they can’t do a cartwheel, nobody’s going to die because they can’t kick a ball, but somebody might die if they can’t get that next breath if they fall in the pool,” Wiggins said.
The petition already has thousands of signatures. Click here to see it.