Indiana legislative committee unanimously passes recommendations to improve the state’s water safety curriculum

INDIANAPOLIS — An interim public health study committee unanimously passed several recommendations on Wednesday to improve the state’s water safety curriculum next year.

The recommendations for the General Assembly to consider next session included establishing grade-specific video modules and encouraging optional partnerships between schools and groups like the YMCA and USA Swimming.

According to the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH), drowning is the third leading cause of death among Hoosier children ages 5-9, and the leading cause of death among kids ages 1-4.

“I feel like every summer, there’s at least one or two articles where you see someone drown,” Matt Moen, the Aquatics Director at MSD of Lawrence Township, said.

This semester, the district launched Operation Water Safety: a program created to give all 1,200 of the district’s fourth graders a two-day course in water safety over the next several weeks.

“It’s free to the kids,” Moen said. “Our swim coaches and our aquatic staff are making sure the kids are getting a quality lesson.”

According to Moen, roughly half of the fourth graders he worked with so far had no prior experience with pools.

“You get these kids who are, like, terrified day one, and they’re pumped to come back day two, and then they’re a totally different human being that second day, and that, that’s kind of why we’re doing this,” Moen said.

Operation Water Safety was brought up on Wednesday as the gold standard during Wednesday’s interim committee meeting.

“I stand before you as someone who never learned how to swim,” State Sen. Mark Spencer (D-Gary) told lawmakers on the panel.

State Sen. Spencer called on the panel to pass his bill requiring schools to show K-12 students an age-appropriate water safety video each year. He introduced the bill last session, but it died in committee.

“This modest step costs very little, but the lives saved…is immeasurable,” State Sen. Spencer said.

Several other advocates joined State Sen. Spencer in calling for the bill to pass—many of them survivors of drowning, or loved ones of victims.

“We were both strong swimmers,” Evelyn Hernandez, Founder of the Indiana Water Safety Consortium, said, recalling the drowning death of her boyfriend in 2012. “This could happen to anyone.”

“I exhausted all my energy trying to get back to the surface…the water kept pushing me down,” Dave Benjamin, the Co-Founder of the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, said recalling a drowning incident he survived in 2010. “We need classroom education.”