AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Children from low-income households in the U.S. are less likely to learn how to swim, and that can have serious consequences. Drowning is a leading cause of death for children. Alice Daniel in California's Central Valley reports on how public pools can help save lives.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Victor Perez Pacheco (ph).
ALICE DANIEL, BYLINE: At the Orosi High School graduation last year, students walked across an outdoor stage to receive their diplomas. But one student who should've been there wasn't. Two years ago, Alejandro Araujo and some of his friends were out on a lake in the nearby Sierra Nevada.
YOLANDA VALDEZ: He had a safety vest, and he jumped in the water. And the safety vest must've just slipped right out of him, and he never came up.
DANIEL: That's Yolanda Valdez. She's the superintendent of the Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District, about an hour southeast of Fresno.
VALDEZ: It was the most devastating, awful thing ever. There was an empty chair at graduation and a moment of silence for him.
DANIEL: The district encompasses two farmworker communities. Valdez says this area's high poverty rate is part of why most kids don't know how to swim. There hasn't been money to build pools, and working parents may not have time or money to take them elsewhere. Across the country, 79% of kids in low-income households have little or no swimming ability, according to USA Swimming. But it's something this district is now changing. Using COVID funds, a million-dollar county grant and special state money for underserved communities, it built a brand-new aquatics complex at Orosi High.
VALDEZ: We want to do this because we want to save lives. We want to teach our children how to swim so they can survive.
DANIEL: Starting this summer, Valdez says, kids are taking low-cost swim lessons.
DONOVAN CASTILLO: All right, boys and girls. All right, are we ready?
DANIEL: Lead lifeguard Donovan Castillo talks to a group of young kids sitting on the side of the wading pool learning to kick.
CASTILLO: Three, two, one. Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick.
DANIEL: Nine-year-old Dylan Rodarte is kicking so hard that he can barely spell his last name for me when he reaches the other side of the pool.
DYLAN RODARTE: R-O-D-A-R-T-E.
DANIEL: He says being in the water is awesome.
DYLAN: I feel like I'm swimming, like, in the sky.
DANIEL: He feels like he's swimming in the sky. Parent Luis Ayala sits under the shade watching his 9-year-old son, Gael, take lessons. He says he and other parents are relieved their kids have a place to learn how to swim.
LUIS AYALA: That's good they can learn at this age, you know? And it's better because if something happen, they know how to do.
DANIEL: This pool opening in Orosi goes against a trend, according to Bill Ramos. He's a professor of public health at Indiana University. He also chairs a Scientific Advisory Council for the Red Cross that deals with water safety and drowning prevention.
BILL RAMOS: We're seeing kind of the decline of the public pool nationwide.
DANIEL: A smaller share of the country has access to public pools compared to years past, Ramos says. That's due to privatization and starved city budgets, and that means fewer places for kids to learn the important safety skill of swimming. Back at the Orosi High aquatics complex, a lifeguard training program is in the works. It already has at least one future participant.
PRECIOUS HERNANDEZ: When I grow up, I want to be a lifeguard.
DANIEL: That's 8-year-old Precious Hernandez. She loves swimming but says it's kind of hard.
PRECIOUS: You just have to keep on practicing.
DANIEL: Keep on practicing so she and other kids can stay safe in the water. For NPR News, I'm Alice Daniel in Orosi, California.
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