Risingnumberof CT youth drownings reveals inequities in access to swim lessons, officials say

Jul. 31—A fifth child death was also included in the state data that involved a 17-year-old who went through the ice in New York. The teen was taken to Sharon Hospital in Litchfield County where he died.

The Bridgeport teen last week was the third 17-year-old to die of an accidental drowning this year in Connecticut. Police said a 15-year-old New London boy who went missing last week while swimming in Westerly, R.I., also likely died from accidental drowning.

"Most concerning is these are older kids," said Brendan Burke, an assistant in the state Office of the Child Advocate and coordinator for the Child Fatality Review Panel. "They were recreationally engaged and either not getting the experience in early life to swim or acting dangerously."

Drowning deaths in Connecticut typically involve either young children in pools or older youths in open bodies of water, he said.

The death in Newtown came just over a week after police said a woman and her 5-year-old daughter were swept away and drowned while swimming in the Shetucket River in Sprague.

In 2022, six children died by drowning, according to the data, which was provided by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. One of those deaths, an infant who was less than a year old, was ruled a homicide.

Connecticut accidental child drowning deaths in 2022 and 2023 are up from the previous three years, data shows. In 2021, three children drowned, including the death of a 7-year-old in Westport that was ruled a homicide. One teen died by accidental drowning in 2020 and three children died by accidental drowning in 2019. In 2018, six children died from drowning accidents, according to the data.

"We know that in low-income communities less that 10 percent of adults know how to swim," said Sarah Eagan, the state's Child Advocate. "This is a major public policy issue."

Although Hamden requires students to learn how to swim to graduate from high school, Eagan said there is no statewide curriculum mandating that in all school districts.

"There is still a huge gap (between the cities and suburbs) on what kids have access to," Eagan said. "This is a major equity issue."

In some cases, private organizations have stepped in to try to fill that gap. In New York City, the nonprofit First Strokes has teenagers instruct their peers on how to swim. The organization provides learners with goggles, caps and suits, and the lessons are free.

In June, Kim and Stew Leonard Jr., the CEO of the grocery chain, opened the Stewie the Duck Swim School in Norwalk. Money raised by the school benefits a water safety foundation the couple started in 1990 following the drowning death of their son. The Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation on Thursday presented $5,000 to the Horizons at Green Farms Academy as the program's first grant recipient.

The couple also authored a children's book to help kids with water safety. They have also often said their son's drowning was caused by a lack of their own supervision at their daughter's birthday party in 1989.

"Kids are —when they're around water, you really can never take your eyes off of them," Kim Leonard said. "And so I think that's always an important message I always like to get across, that if you are going to be near in the water with your child, you have to designate somebody to watch that person, and they have to watch them."

A total of at least 14 people have died by drowning so far this year in Connecticut. The number includes three suicides, one homicide and the cause of one death has not been determined. In 2022, there were 30 drowning deaths of all manners and ages. There were 42 in 2021, 39 in 2020, and 43 each in 2019 and 2018.

Drowning kills about 4,000 people nationwide each year and is the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are about 8,000 emergency room visits each year for near drowning, the data shows.

In Sprague where 39-year-old Kelly Dora was swimming with her children in the Shetucket River on July 18, swollen waters from recent flooding carried them away. Dora's son was able to cling to rocks near the shore, according to her family, but Dora and her daughter, 6-year-old Aralye McKeever, both drowned.

A representative from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said it's believed the weather pattern and a sudden change in the water current led to the drownings, because Dora was a strong swimmer.

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In May, a 3-year-old boy drowned in a backyard pool at his home in Danbury, the medical examiner data shows. In March, a 17-year-old from Waterbury died after he went into a reservoir. Police said he fled into the body of water after an officer spotted him and other teens in a stolen car.

The medical examiner's data also includes the February drowning of a 17-year-old boy who fell through the ice at Copake Falls in New York near the Connecticut border. The teen was transported to Sharon Hospital in Connecticut, where he was pronounced dead.