Long story short, 7 kids go into a river, slip from waist deep water to deeper water, all start drowning. None of their family members know how to swim, random bystander manages to save one.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inXN1CXTOhU-0FnIPIWglpSm2B6wD9HCH7681

Oldest kid was 17.

Sad on many levels. My future kids will know how to swim by the age of 6, if not 2-3 years sooner. Also, if it was my kid drowning, and I didn't know how to swim, I'd still be in that water trying to rescue him.

8/4/2010 11:15:32 AM

how many drowned but didn't die

8/4/2010 11:16:21 AM

daww lounge

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 11:17 AM. Reason : ]

8/4/2010 11:17:25 AM

Sucks.

8/4/2010 11:24:28 AM

That's sad and fucked up in so many ways.

8/4/2010 11:27:49 AM

seems dumb to even be in waters like that if you can't swim

8/4/2010 11:27:58 AM

This is terrible. My kids will know how to swim before the age of 5.



[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 11:39 AM. Reason : ]

8/4/2010 11:38:18 AM

Quote :

""None of us could swim," Robinson told The Shreveport Times. "They were yelling 'Help me, help me! Somebody please help me!' It was nothing I could do but watch them drown one by one.""

8/4/2010 11:41:43 AM

Quote :

"IT WAS NOTHING"

8/4/2010 11:43:20 AM

You'd think Indians would learn to stop doing all those silly rain dances.

8/4/2010 11:46:56 AM

I still dont understand how people think its so hard to swim...it was like a natural instinct to me.

8/4/2010 11:48:41 AM

Quote :

"SHREVEPORT, La. — Christopher Patlan was hanging out with friends on the Red River when he heard the desperate screams coming from seven teenagers. One minute they were wading in shallow water, the next they plunged into a dropoff 25 feet deep. Patlan bolted the three yards to the river and jumped in, saving 15-year-old DeKendrix Warner. By the time he had dragged the boy to safety, the six others from two families — all nonswimmers — had drowned. Family members, who also can't swim, watched helplessly. "Everything happened so fast. It was like a wreck," Patlan said Tuesday. Just minutes earlier, Monday afternoon had started out as a typical summer get-together. A large group of relatives and friends, including about 20 children, gathered on a sandy shore near the northwest Louisiana river's bank to cool off from the oppressive heat and to barbecue. They hadn't even set up the grill. The teens were splashing around in waist-high water when DeKendrix stepped off a slippery ledge. As he kicked and flailed, one cousin rushed to help — and found himself plunging into the severe dropoff. Then another. "I stepped and I started drowning," DeKendrix told The Associated Press on Tuesday, speaking in a low voice outside his inner-city Shreveport home, a one-story white clapboard structure with peeling green trim and an unkempt yard. "It's hard when you can't save your kids," said Maude Warner, whose 13-year-old daughter Takeitha and sons 14-year-old JaMarcus and 17-year-old JaTavious were among those who drowned. "It's hard when you just see your kids drowning and you can't save them," she told KTBS TV. The other victims were three brothers: 18-year-old Litrelle Stewart, 17-year-old LaDairus and 15-year-old Latevin. The area of the drownings is near a public park, but it's not a designated recreational or swimming spot and no lifeguards are on duty. It's frequented by swimmers and fishermen, who must walk through woods along a path to reach the river. The city had just dug a trench to limit access to it. "The river is a dangerous place. It's no place to even put your foot in if you don't know how to swim," said Shreveport Fire Chief Brian Crawford. The lone life jacket nearby was thrown to the victims but none could reach it. The tragedy highlights an unsettling statistic. Sixty-nine percent of black children have little or no swimming ability, compared to 41.8 percent of white children, according to a study released last spring by the sports governing body USA Swimming. All the Louisiana victims were black. And African-Americans drown at a rate 20 percent higher than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For decades, segregation limited the access of black people to public and private pools and the disparity continues because many poor and working-class children still have limited access to pools or instruction. Monday's tragedy "confirms what we are finding — this continuing cycle of people not knowing how to swim and their children not knowing how to swim and still being around water," said Sue Anderson, USA Swimming's Director of Programs and Services. "The lack of awareness of how important it is that children learn how to swim." Patlan, who saved the one teen, is white and Hispanic and took swimming lessons as a kid. Parental fear and lack of parental encouragement were the top two reasons children and parents gave for not swimming, Anderson said, adding that fear trumped any financial limitations in the study. "Adults seem to pass their fear of water onto their children," she said. "There seems to be a culture that says, 'Its a scary environment don't go there.'" Marilyn Robinson, a friend of the families, was among the adults who could only watch the victims go under. "None of us could swim," Robinson told The Shreveport Times. "They were yelling 'Help me, help me! Somebody please help me!' It was nothing I could do but watch them drown one by one." Korey Prest said he tried in vain to save one of the victims. "He slipped out of my hands. I couldn't feel him no more," he said. After a more than two-hour search, divers discovered the teens' bodies at nightfall, in a muddy 30-foot-deep section of the river about 20 feet from where they disappeared. The murky water hindered the divers, who sectioned off the river as they meticulously searched the bottom. At their Shreveport neighborhood on Tuesday, family and friends gathered to offer condolences, hugging one another and holding an impromptu prayer vigil. "These are some of the greatest kids in the world," said the Rev. Emmitt Welch, who knew all the victims in his work as a Baptist youth minister. "I mean when you think about the ideal children, these kids are wonderful." Nearby, DeKendrix leaned against a pole, the lone survivor plucking nervously at his purple T-shirt, and sighed."

8/4/2010 11:50:06 AM

It's besides the point of whether or not I could swim or not. I would at least try to save my child if they were ever in any kind of danger (drowning, swimming, being attacked by an animal or someone else, etc.), regardless if it would cost me my very own life.

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 11:56 AM. Reason : .]

8/4/2010 11:55:33 AM

especially if they represented a good portion of my welfare dues

8/4/2010 11:57:12 AM

epic Ja, La, and De use in that article

8/4/2010 11:58:04 AM

Darwin Award nominee(s)?

Too soon?

8/4/2010 12:10:18 PM

Quote :

"I still dont understand how people think its so hard to swim...it was like a natural instinct to me."

It's not really the "not-being-able-swim" as the panic that goes along with feeling like you're going to drown and knowing that you never learned how to swim.



[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 12:14 PM. Reason : ,]

8/4/2010 12:12:40 PM

Also, staying afloat while trying to drag a kicking screaming panicking teenager out a moving river might be more difficult than you'd think.

Still, if it were my kid I'd give it a try even if I was wearing lead shoes. I can't imagine for the life of me imagine watching my child drown without me trying to pull her out of the water.

Thankfully I understand we live on a planet covered in water and the prudent course is to learn to swim. My daughter's been comfortable with the pool since she was 6 months old and starts her 2yo swim class next week. (also the day she'll be allowed to play in a moving river is the day she can swim unassisted).

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 12:25 PM. Reason : also]

8/4/2010 12:24:15 PM

^^yes and no. While there is a panic that typically occurs in adults, that's what keeps them out of the water in the first place. Young kids have not developed that fear, which is why it's typically easier to teach them how to swim than an adult, and also why it's more likely for them to be a drowning victim.

In this case, no one should have been in the water. It's not only the parents fault but also the community that these teens grew up in that didn't enforce the dangers of being in water without knowing how to swim.

How all six of them went is unusual. They said they had walked off a 'shelf', but did they all walk off at the same time, holding hands? Typically I have found that people who are uncomfortable in the water or unfamiliar with the territory tend to 'hop' in the water, so did they all just hop at the same time? Or did one grab the other, then the other, and so on?

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 12:37 PM. Reason : V sorry i didn't read ]

8/4/2010 12:31:24 PM

Quote :

"The teens were splashing around in waist-high water when DeKendrix stepped off a slippery ledge. As he kicked and flailed, one cousin rushed to help — and found himself plunging into the severe dropoff. Then another."

One kid fell in, the others then tried to help and ended up drowning. They were all panicking.

8/4/2010 12:34:20 PM

I so want a to embed the Benny Hill music right now.

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 12:38 PM. Reason : *]

8/4/2010 12:37:46 PM

Quote :

"Maude Warner, whose 13-year-old daughter Takeitha and sons 14-year-old JaMarcus and 17-year-old JaTavious were among those who drowned."

Quote :

"The other victims were three brothers: 18-year-old Litrelle Stewart, 17-year-old LaDairus and 15-year-old Latevin."

what a tragedy. Can you imagine being a parent and losing three children??

Like disco_stu said, even if you are a good swimmer you can easily get pulled down by a drowning person. It's very dangerous to just jump in and try to grab someone.

8/4/2010 12:38:00 PM

Quote :

"Thankfully I understand we live on a planet covered in water and the prudent course is to learn to swim. My daughter's been comfortable with the pool since she was 6 months old and starts her 2yo swim class next week."

I'm sure economics are at least part of it. If you're lower income you might not be able to afford swimming lessons or even access to a pool for that matter. Of course if I couldn't swim I'd stay out of any water that got up over knee deep.

Stalk the prey

8/4/2010 1:07:16 PM

my kids will be in water as soon as possible. i took swim lessons around 3 yo, was on the neighborhood swim team at 4 yo. i want my kids to learn earlier than that, esp since we spend a lot of time fishing, kayaking, boating, etc. it'd be nice if Fumbler would take some lessons too.

8/4/2010 1:10:32 PM

I didn't have swimming lessons and I learned to swim by the age of 3...


Anyway, this is very sad. I completely agree with this:

Quote :

"It's besides the point of whether or not I could swim or not. I would at least try to save my child if they were ever in any kind of danger (drowning, swimming, being attacked by an animal or someone else, etc.), regardless if it would cost me my very own life."

8/4/2010 1:13:54 PM

did you want a cookie or something? i don't remember taking the lessons but i was told i did. i do remember swim team.

8/4/2010 1:16:46 PM

^^^^yeah, I can concede that, but that really doesn't explain why hispanics are less likely than whites to incidentally drown.

Nevertheless, it's important to learn to swim. There are community pools, swim classes at public schools, lakes, large ponds, etc. There's a lot of water to jump in on this planet and not every one costs money.

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 1:17 PM. Reason : ^]

8/4/2010 1:16:47 PM

I grew up lower middle class in a largish NC city. Never had swim lessons. Learned to swim by being thrown in the deep end of the public pool. I was an all-conference swimmer my senior year of high school, the only time I swam competitively.

8/4/2010 1:21:16 PM

^^Pretty sure all Hispanics in this country have already passed a comprehensive swimming test.

jk

8/4/2010 1:41:19 PM

Quote :

"that really doesn't explain why hispanics are less likely than whites to incidentally drown."

Swimming across the Rio Grande?

8/4/2010 1:43:21 PM

Notice how she talks regular after losing 3 kids.


She probably has 4 more.

8/4/2010 1:44:38 PM

I learned to swim when I was a toddler. Took life guarding lessons in middle school.

I'm so glad that my parents believed in the importance of not only knowing how to swim, but also knowing how to save other people who don't know how to swim

8/4/2010 1:52:35 PM

Quote :

"I grew up lower middle class in a largish NC city. Never had swim lessons. Learned to swim by being thrown in the deep end of the public pool."

I get that, but the reality is that there is a large portion of the black population that has zero access to public pools. Even for those that do, often times the parents cant swim, and decades of being institutionally barred from pools haven't been overcome yet.

Another generation or two, and the gap should close.

I mean, Cullen Jones.

8/4/2010 2:00:26 PM

Quote :

"I'm sure economics are at least part of it. If you're lower income you might not be able to afford swimming lessons or even access to a pool for that matter"

I call BS.

I mean, have you ever BEEN to a YMCA public pool? EVERY SCREAMING BLACK KID IN TOWN IS THERE. Maybe if they didnt spend so much time misbehaving and actin' a f00l in the pool, they'd learn to swim.

8/4/2010 2:23:07 PM

sick burns itt, i mean racism.

8/4/2010 2:29:46 PM

yeah, pretty reckless racism and/or insensitivity

8/4/2010 2:32:11 PM

EMCE, BigHitSunday, Big Business and myself got in trouble for a similar incident a while back

8/4/2010 2:32:20 PM

Quote :

"I'm sure economics are at least part of it. If you're lower income you might not be able to afford swimming lessons or even access to a pool for that matter."

it doesn't take swimming lessons to know that all you have to do is just lay on your back and you'll float in water

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 2:36 PM. Reason : they just panicked]

8/4/2010 2:35:21 PM

The reckless racism in this thread is overwhelming and spiraling out of control, forever damaging America.

8/4/2010 2:37:44 PM

Until someone insinuates they all chased a tossed watermelon out into the deep part of the river, it's not out of control yet.

8/4/2010 2:44:10 PM

^^^

it does take someone that knows this to tell you.

Have you ever been to rural Louisiana, alabama, or mississippi?

If you have, it shouldn't be that much of a stretch to understand how poorly educated that the impoverished are.

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 2:48 PM. Reason : .]

8/4/2010 2:47:19 PM

it's pretty reckless when it's as easy as
1) scan an article
2) find out the people who died were black
3) quickly type out some ignorant remark about welfare

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 2:48 PM. Reason : .]

8/4/2010 2:47:44 PM

Its pretty reckless to assume I made the welfare comment based on their race instead of their income class.

Also, didn't scan; I read it

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 2:49 PM. Reason : Thats two things you pulled out of your ass]

8/4/2010 2:48:48 PM

what did you base your welfare comment on? what part of the article talks about their income class?

[Edited on August 4, 2010 at 2:51 PM. Reason : .]

8/4/2010 2:51:03 PM

I am going to rural Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi to hand out towels with "Don't Panic!" printed on them. "Don't Panic!" and "Always carry a towel" are the two rules to live by.

8/4/2010 2:53:09 PM

Quote :

"The area of the drownings is near a public park, but it's not a designated recreational or swimming spot and no lifeguards are on duty. It's frequented by swimmers and fishermen, who must walk through woods along a path to reach the river. The city had just dug a trench to limit access to it. "The river is a dangerous place. It's no place to even put your foot in if you don't know how to swim," said Shreveport Fire Chief Brian Crawford."

Sounds like a place middle to upper class folk frequent to me!

8/4/2010 2:53:31 PM

it's ok for you to make assumptions... but when someone makes assumptions based on something you said it's wrong.

got it.

8/4/2010 2:56:24 PM

You make an ass out of u and mption.

8/4/2010 3:00:25 PM

I assumed they were poor

you assumed I was racist

but ok

8/4/2010 3:01:31 PM

You guys can backpeddle all you want. It's almost working.

8/4/2010 3:02:40 PM