LA JOYA, Texas — La Joya Independent School District has started offering swimming lessons for children this week to prevent drownings.
So far, 37 children in Texas have died this year, drowning in a swimming pool, according to data from Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. It’s a tragedy that can happen in the blink of an eye, but it’s also fully preventable. That’s what La Joya ISD hopes to do this summer, teaching children in the community how to swim.
For a child who doesn’t know how to swim, daring to push off to glide in the water for a few feet without floaters for the first time can be terrifying, even if there’s an adult waiting to catch them. Virginia Rodríguez, the director of the swimming program at La Joya ISD certainly understands that.
“I was a drowning victim myself long time ago. I had fear of the water, so I had to overcome my fear and become a really good swimmer. I’ve made it my life’s passion to teach children how to swim, at least the basics so they can have a fighting chance and don’t get hurt in the water,” said Rodríguez as she held an anxious student in her arms.
Rodríguez was lucky, as her father was a professional diver. He rescued her and she had to be resuscitated. Rodríguez was a teenager when that happened and even though she grew up around water, her earlier fear made it difficult for her to learn how to swim.
Rodríguez now imparts her knowledge and experience to children in the Rio Grande valley. She has to teach them the very basics, like how to kick in the water, because many children never get to learn how to swim at all “because the parents themselves don’t know how to swim so they tend to not wanna put their child in the water,” she said.
The swimming program is imparted at the Olympic style swimming pool of the La Joya ISD sports and learning center. It’s depth can be very scary for children.
In the first stage, instructors teach the children streamlining, floating, and rolling. These skills are aimed at making the children feel comfortable in the water.
For the next step, 21-year-old swimmer Diana Balderas trains the children how to acquire self-control. This is absolutely vital to prevent drowning in an emergency situation.
“Fear makes them panic and panicking submerges them in water and causes them to drown, so we teach them how to float and stay calm and keep calm breaths. Just trust we’re not gonna let them drown,” said Balderas after successfully teaching a child to float on her back.
80 children drowned in Texas swimming pools in 2020, according to state authorities. Victor Garza, La Joya ISD’s athletic director says the lessons started because of the geographical particularities, but most importantly, La Joya is no stranger to tragedy.
“We are surrounded by bodies of water and weighing this district, we’ve had several unfortunate situations that we lost students due to the fact that they didn’t know how to swim,” Garza said while supervising the lessons from outside the pool.
Rodríguez believes swimming lessons should be a general requirement, and parents have the most important role to play.
“Push your children to learn to swim. It’s a scary thing, but it’s a thing that is good for the kids” Rodríguez said.
Within a week’s time the children learn to swim, but regardless of whether they can or not, they should never be allowed in the water unattended by an adult, Rodríguez said.