Pasadena Unified Gets Back in the Pool

For Pasadena Councilmember Tyron Hampton and PUSD Superintendent Dr. Brian McDonald, learning to swim is personal.

At the announcement of the return of the PUSD third grade 2022-2023 Learn to Swim program at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center on Monday, Hampton revealed that he had learned to swim only last year, with the help of Aquatic Center staff members.

Rose Bowl Aquatics Center President and Executive Director Jimmy Francis joined LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger in announcing the return of the program, as they recognized International Water Safety Day and National Water Safety Month.

“I have sponsored so many swimming programs,” Hampton said, “and I realized that I really should learn.”

During the pandemic, Hampton noted, “We were all doing things to better ourselves,” crediting Cristine Alvarado, RBAC director of swim lessons, for providing the inspiration and motivation.

“I went to Hawaii this past year,” said Hampton happily, “and this was the first time I went in the ocean.”

For McDonald, however, the subject was much more sobering.

McDonald told the group that as a young boy growing up in Jamaica, he and a group of friends had decided to spend a day at Galleon Beach, a notoriously dangerous beach for swimmers.

“We went in the water,” said McDonald, “and one of us, my friend George, who we called, ‘Georgie,’ didn’t make it. He drowned.”

Since then, said McDonald, he has only ventured in water up to his ankles, he said, but has been a strong proponent for swimming and water safety lessons. He also cited the case of Roxie Forbes, a six-year-old who drowned in a summer camp pool in Altadena, in 2019, in his push for pool safety.

The PUSD Learn to Swim program was paused two years ago when COVID-19 canceled school field trips. With funding assistance from the Pasadena Educational Foundation, Pasadena Children’s Health Foundation, LA 84 Foundation, and Dewey Pest Control, the third-grade program will beginning in the fall of 2022, provide access to water safety classes to all PUSD third graders in all PUSD elementary schools, said an RBAC announcement.

Each PUSD third grader will receive 15 swim lessons, a bathing suit, towel service, and a water safety workbook.

The RBAC noted that drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional death in children ages 1-14.

“Water safety classes are vital to ensure the safety of our community youth,” said the announcement.