S.O.S.

Every summer, in the wake of tragedy, water safety is brought up yet again by the press. At Physique it is always on our minds. Our goal is to educate non-swimmers in order to prevent these devastating water accidents. This morning AM New York caught my attention with a cover story on water safety in New York. Please find Sheila Anne Feeney's interesting article S.O.S. posted below.

In the most recent tragedy involving children and the shimmering cool water that beckons on sweltering days, Crystal Reyes, 15, struggled to stay afloat in the Bronx River last Sunday.

Her friend David Lee Luccioni III, 17, jumped in to save her. Both drowned. Last month, Nicole Suriel, 12, drowned on a school trip to Long Beach. Neither girl knew how to swim, according to their parents.

Why city kids are less water literate than their suburban peers is a mix of cultural attitudes, fears and a lack of access and opportunity.

A 2010 survey in six cities (New York was not included) by the University of Memphis for USA Swimming showed that 61 percent of the respondents had low swimming ability, and 10 percent were non-swimmers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the second leading cause of accident-related death for kids, with black children 3.1 times more likely to drown than white children.

Cultural attitudes trump socioeconomic factors as a reason many kids never learn to swim, according to the study. Paradoxically, fear of the water was a major reason parents did not make swimming lessons a priority for their children, despite the fact that water competence decreases the risk of drowning.

"The kids don't learn how to swim and be comfortable in the water because the parents never learned how to swim and be comfortable in the water," said Sunny Anderson, the aquatic director of the Harlem YMCA.

While New York City schools partner with area YMCAs and the Department of Parks & Recreation to offer classes, students are not required to know how to swim as a part of their physical education curriculum. That means parental motivation is crucial if a child is to embrace the life aquatic.

Some kids can become water competent in a single eight-week course, said Anderson, but others need 32 weeks to get their sea legs.

"I know [swimming lesson] save lives," she said. "Children swimming in rivers, lakes or ocean beaches, they should take lessons there are well" because conditions in natural bodies of water can differ significantly from those of a pool.