LAVALLETTE – As kids hit the beach and their pools this summer, they will be prepared for emergencies thanks to a pilot program teaching water safety.
Second graders at Lavallette Elementary School had been learning the essentials of staying safe around water through a four-day module before the school year ended. The curriculum was designed to teach students the basics of water safety while building their understanding of how to respond in water-related emergencies.
The program at Lavallette Elementary School is a partnership between national water safety nonprofit The ZAC Foundation – which created the curriculum – the New Jersey Swim Safety Alliance (NJSSA), and the Lavallette School District.
The ZAC Foundation was established in 2008 by Karen and Brian Cohn after the loss of their 6-year-old son, Zachary Archer Cohn, in a pool drain entrapment in their backyard swimming pool. In his honor, the Cohns established TZF to help prepare parents and children for a lifetime of water safety, including the potential dangers associated with pool or spa drains and basic water safety and swimming skills. Their lessons have been shared with more than 20,000 children ages 5-9 nationwide.
During the interactive lesson, students learned about pool drain dangers and entrapment hazards through engaging, hands-on activities. Activities included creating a song about water safety and a STEM exercise that helps students understand how drains use suction, what makes them dangerous, and how engineers solve real-world safety problems.
NJSSA founding Board member Judith Leblein who was present for the the final lesson, told JerseyShoreOnline.com that Lavallette Superintendent Dr. Lisa Gleason was instrumental in bringing the program together.
Leblein, who lives in the borough, said that thanks to recent legislation, “starting in September every parent, private or public school will get a water safety sheet and a QR code which will send them to our site to see where they can get a packet of safety information.”
The main purpose of NJSSA is to unify all aquatic organizations into one cooperative, collaborative family. The agency wants to spread the message of water safety, hope, and compassion beleiving a single action can make a difference in the community, and that collective action can greatly impact the world.
“This is a multi-state pilot and we did a program at the Camden Boys and Girls Club. They ran the curriculum there. I was in Connecticut for a program aimed at 3rd graders,” Assemblyman Mike Inganamort (NJ-24) said. He came out for the event and is a co-sponsor of New Jersey Assembly Bill A4763, which advances multi-state and local water safety efforts. The law directs the development of a water safety fact sheet and requires school districts to maintain a public list of local, free, or reduced-cost swim lessons.
“We did it here starting in the end of the fall which was part of a school assembly. This one was a four day program in the classroom,” Leblein noted. “My little neighbor Blair who goes to kindergarten here, her family got a new pool in the backyard and she took me by the hand and she said ‘I want to show you my new pool’ and she started telling me the ABCD basics of water safty.”
Those basics are outlined in a children’s book that the Cohns wrote. “The Polar Bear Who Couldn’t, Wouldn’t Swim” follows the journey of a young polar bear named Zeke who is afraid of the water and refuses to swim. The book was created as a tool for educators and parents to teach young swimmers, ages 5-9, about how to stay safe in any body of water. It was used in the Lavallette second grade classroom where the final lesson was conducted..
Teacher Randy Royle went over those basics with his students, quizzing them about the goals of the story.
The A stands for Adults, “because you should always have an adult watching you while you are in the water. You need an adult at all times with their eyes on you. What does the B stand for?”
Owen, one of the students, answered correctly with “barriers.” Then another student, Ray, explained that a barrier could be a fence or a gate.
The teacher added that barriers might “surround the water to keep unwanted things out of it or to let you know that you should not go in there without an adult.”
“I think this has been great,” Royle said after the lesson. “Living in a town that is so close to the water it is important and doing the lessons prior to the summer and having them get their ABCDs locked down.”
Assistant Principal and Borough Fire Chief Michael Hajisafari said, “we have the ocean on one side of the school and the bay on another. Spreading water safety awareness throughout the community is very, very important. We appreciate it.”
“We appreciate the test drive of the curriculum,” Leblein added. “Brick Township is very interested. Rob Brown, the chief lifeguard at Brick is now in charge of curriculum for water safety in Brick so this is spreading. She is heading a bathing suit and goggle drive for the NJSSA to support saving lives in the water with a location drop location at 114 New York Avenue in Lavallette.”
In New Jersey swimsuits are required to be worn during swim lessons and she is asking for donations of any new, unusued boys’ or girls’ swimsuits and goggles to that location. You can reach her at 732-319-5814 or email her at jleblein@optonline.net for further details and for information about the NJSSA.
