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The suit alleged a careless lifeguard missed the drowning boy. Insurance will cover the $1.55-million payment.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 27, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- Eckerd College has agreed to pay $1.55-million to settle a lawsuit by the family of a 15-year-old boy who drowned in the school's swimming pool in July 1999.
James Robert Goetsch III apparently blacked out while practicing holding his breath and floated lifelessly while other swimmers passed him by.
In a lawsuit alleging "reckless inattentiveness," Goetsch's family said the pool's lifeguard sat where she could not see the bottom of the pool, reading a magazine and socializing.
In settling the lawsuit in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, the college admitted no negligence, and school officials declined to discuss specific allegations against the lifeguard. The Eckerd attorney handling the suit did not return a call for comment.
The suit was filed by the teenager's mother, Beverly Goetsch. His father, James Goetsch, an author and assistant professor of philosophy at Eckerd, is not named as a plaintiff.
Insurance will pay Eckerd's settlement costs, which won't affect the school's bottom line, school officials said.
"It's an extraordinarily painful situation because it involved a member of our faculty and his child," said Lloyd W. Chapin, Eckerd vice president and dean of faculty. "We tried to do everything we could to make it right."
He said Eckerd has since implemented changes at its campus pool to make it safer. For example, instead of the lone lifeguard on duty at the pool, two lifeguards are now stationed.
The Goetsch family declined to comment. But their attorney, Hank Uiterwyk, said he was happy to see the college take the necessary steps to correct problems at the pool.
He noted that the day after Goetsch drowned, another lifeguard was seen washing his car at the pool while on duty.
"When we finally laid out the problems for them, they actually went in and made substantial changes," Uiterwyk said. "They needed to. It was a mess."
Goetsch was in a lap lane of the pool with 15 to 20 other swimmers, practicing holding his breath to increase his lung capacity for snorkeling or scuba diving. But he apparently blacked out, police said.
Nobody immediately noticed anything wrong because Goetsch was known to hold his breath underwater.
An Eckerd College graduate who was swimming laps passed Goetsch several times in the lane.
She noticed on the third pass that he was on the pool bottom, about 3 1/2 feet below the surface, with his hands floating toward the surface.
In the lawsuit, the teenager's family said it took five to seven minutes to even begin to summon rescue personnel or administer CPR.
When police arrived at the college, 4200 54th Ave. S, Goetsch did not have a pulse and was not breathing.
Chapin said the lifeguard on duty at the time, who is a graduate of the school and now lives in Michigan, was a conscientious lifeguard.