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The water barrier

Historic events, cosmetic concerns and economic circumstances often keep black children away from pools and at high risk for drowning.

CLEARWATER - Earlier this month a 12-year-old Clearwater boy nearly drowned in an 8-foot-deep hotel swimming pool. His sister, 17, stood helpless at the pool's edge, watching her brother's blood surface to the top of the water.

Neither could swim.

Although the boy, Shaquille Wallace, was rescued by the hotel owner, the incident highlights a troubling problem: Black children die from drowning in pools at a far higher rate than white children.

According to one national study, the drowning risk for black boys ages 6 to 19 is 12 to 15 times higher than their white counterparts.

While the risk for black girls is lower, they, too, are at an increased danger of drowning in pools.

But why? And what is being done to teach them how to survive in the water?

At the North Greenwood Recreation and Aquatic Complex, a new $4.8-million pool and rec center in a historically black Clearwater neighborhood, children's swimming classes are often only half-full - even with scholarships available.

That is frustrating to some who work there.

"Black parents don't put their children in lessons. Black parents don't spend the money," said swim instructor Ajene Snow, 20, who is African-American.

Swimming and safety experts point to deeply embedded cultural and sociological reasons - from slavery to hair care maintenance - as reasons for such reluctance.

Lee Pitts, a Fort Lauderdale resident who is the first African-American to produce an instructional swim video, which is now used by the Boys and Girls Club of America, said explaining the disparity is not easy.

Finances are an issue, he said. Blacks have historically made less, meaning reduced access to swim lessons, which to many are a luxury.

Jim Crow laws and fear passed down from prior generations are also factors, he said.

The gruesome treatment blacks were subjected to during the slave trade and slavery are the reason for some African-Americans' cultural fear of water, he said.

The threat of being thrown overboard was common on ships transporting blacks across the Atlantic Ocean. Being thrown over and left to drown was oftentimes used as a means of punishment.

Pitts said once blacks got to the United States, slave masters didn't allow them to swim because it was seen as a means of escape.

"Nobody has talked about the horrors of slavery in terms of swimming. If I'm a slave master, it is my best interest that my slaves didn't learn to swim."

Thus, a domino effect was created, Pitts said.

"You have a generation of nonswimmers birthing nonswimmers. That generation goes on to birth a generation of nonswimmers who will give birth to another generation who will be nonswimmers," said Pitts, who has appeared on Good Morning America and the Today Show to discuss blacks and swimming.

"All of a sudden, after Emancipation Proclamation, they are free, but they are not free with swimming skills."

Today, he said, black children too often see swimming as a sport rather than a survival skill.

"If you can't execute the fundamentals of some sports . . . if you can't shoot a free throw or throw a pass, it won't mean the difference between life and death," Pitts said.

On one recent afternoon at the North Greenwood pool, four boys bare their brown bellies before slowly making their way to the pool's edge.

It's the second day of swim lessons and Tariq Smith, 3, is in the pool with his right arm around the neck of his swim instructor, Ajene Snow.

"Okay, relax," says Snow as she pulls Tariq's arm down. He puts it right back around her neck.

"Okay, put your head back," Snow says as she helps Tariq lie in the water in a floating position.

"Push your tummy to the sky," she says. The three other boys watch from the side, wondering who's next.

Snow said it's disheartening to see so few kids in her swimming classes. Snow, who has worked in municipal pools in Pinellas since she was 15, says she sees a lack of interest among black parents in the area.

When she worked at a pool in an ethnically mixed community in St. Petersburg, she said the facility had to turn kids away for lessons.

"Women would line up at the door at 6 a.m., and signup wouldn't be until 8 a.m.," Snow said. "Here, we rarely have a full class."

Pitts, who founded the Lee Pitts Swim School in South Florida, said the vast majority of black parents he meets never learned how to swim, and the cycle continues.

Most public pools were segregated and built in white communities until the 1960s, Pitts said. So previous generations of blacks were generally not exposed to public pools.

But not all want to continue the cycle.

Tariq's mother, Terry Smith, said she never took swimming lessons growing up in Jamacia. But the near-drowning of Smith's 9-year-old nephew on a family vacation prompted her to enroll Tariq in classes. Her nephew, who couldn't swim, was spotted at the bottom of the pool by another family member.

"(The incident) stayed in my memory," Smith said. "That motivated me to get my kids in lessons . . . so they could help themselves.

"What if she (family member) hadn't seen him, my sister would have lost her only son."

On the same June afternoon, four or five teenage boys stand around in a broken circle across the street from the North Greenwood pool. It's hot. Steamy hot. Ninety-three degrees hot, and not one is in swimming shorts.

When asked why they aren't at the pool, one 14-year-old boy answers, "Don't want to get blacker. You get black in the pool."

Another boy agrees.

"You get blacker quicker," said 13-year-old Terrance Reckel.

When asked what's wrong with being darker, he says "people pick on you.

"The girls don't go out with you," said Terrance, who will attend Kennedy Middle School this fall.

Standing in a group, all the boys say they know how to swim. But only a couple have taken lessons.

Pitts lists the damage the chlorine in pool water does to blacks' skin and hair.

"We have different types of hair and scalp because we are descendents of Africa," Pitts said. "Chlorine breaks off black peoples' hair."

And if a woman's hair is chemically straightened, a short dip in the pool can lead to hours of restraightening.

"They say, "We don't want our hair all nappy.' I've heard it so many times. If I had a penny every time I heard that, I would be a millionaire," Pitts said.

Pitts said such issues "shouldn't keep you from learning one of the basic, necessary skills of life."

Pitts' instructional video, Waters, has a section on hair care tips for the water. He said he made it specifically to soothe their concerns.

At the North Greenwood pool, swimming lessons are from $25 to $37.50 for two weeks worth of lessons. Most kids, according to Snow, take at least a month or more of lessons before they become confident swimmers.

The pool offers scholarships for children on free or reduced school lunch. Parents only pay 25 percent of the regular fee.

Ann Hogan, 53, a godparent to one of Snow's students, said the cost of lessons is too steep for some.

"You can't eat it (lessons), it's not a roof over your head," Hogan said. "Especially with more than one child, especially if you're a single parent, that makes it double hard."

Pitts agreed.

If he had had to pay for his lessons, Pitts said, "I would have never learned how to swim," Pitts said. "Swim lessons should be free to low-income kids. Period."

Pitts grew up in the projects of Birmingham, Ala., and learned to swim for free when he was 6.

But if cost is a barrier, he said, a paycheck can be an inducement for taking swim lessons.

Police officer, firefighter, EMS worker, member of the military - all of those jobs require some level of swimming skill, he said. He gets adult students regularly who want to apply for these fields.

He talks about the effects of lower self-esteem black kids may endure if they have to sit on the pool's deck instead of splashing and diving in like other kids.

But he's hopeful.

He sees the the enthusiasm of the black children he encounters when he conducts swim camps.

"I have very seldom met children who don't want to learn to swim," he said.

Snow, who will continue to teach swim lessons throughout the summer at Greenwood, said the majority of black parents she meets want to change the cycle of fear and lack of opportunity that have kept them from swim lessons.

And Pitts' video, which features some African-American boys and girls, has sold more than 500,000 copies since 1999.

The tape, he says, "demystifies swimming" by taking a Sesame Street approach to swimming.

Pitts said he envisions the day when he sees a group of black and white 8-year-old boys and girls at the pool.

"If the 8-year-old little white boy and white girl can jump in 10 feet of water and swim across, say 30 yards, then I don't see why the 8-year-old black boy and black girl shouldn't be able to jump and swim across and get out on the other side, too.

"That should be normal."

- Times Researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Angie Green can be reached at 727 445-4224 or agreen@sptimes.com