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Junior Journalists: Cool pool puts students to the test

By MICHAEL ARNITZ
Published March 15, 2007

The Junior Journalism program is a partnership between the Citrus Times and the Citrus County school district to encourage writing. Students were supplied with prompts and asked to write essays. These third-graders wrote as if they were reporters reporting about a cool pool.

Hello, this is Channel 7 Tampa Bay News and I am Annalise Bunting reporting to you live from Bicentennial Park Pool, here in beautiful but chilly Citrus County. I am here where three children from Mrs. Bee's class who are being treated for hypothermia due to the freezing temperature of the pool. They were taking swimming lessons today but were unaware that the pool's heater was broken.

The outside temperature here is 50 degrees, but without a heater in the pool, the water temperature is 35 degrees. The children are being taken to a local hospital for treatment. One of the students was able to speak with us before being placed in the ambulance.

"Hello, and your name is?"

"My nnname is Sssara."

"How did you feel when you got into the pool?"

"Ffffreezzing."

"Did you have any idea that it was going to be that cold?"

"No, we had no way of knowing until we jumped into the pool. It was so cold that Frank's lips turned blue."

"Well we better let you get to the hospital. Good luck to you Sara."

Here comes Mrs. Bee. "Mrs. Bee, did you know that the pool was not heated?"

"No, I did not know. Do you think I would have let these kids get in the pool if I had known? When I was on the phone with the pool staff, before coming here, they told me it was heated. Not one person told us otherwise."

"Well, Mrs. Bee, do you think they should shut down the pool until summertime or never open it again?"

"I would say they need to close it until summer or get that heater fixed. They should let people know when things are broken. Those poor kids. We will probably have a lawsuit on our hands now."

"Okay, thank you, Mrs. Bee. Good luck to all of you."

Well, folks that is the story here. Stay tuned for your local weather with Jim. This is Annalise Bunting saying have a nice day, Tampa Bay.

* * *

One cool, breezy day at the Citrus Springs School there was a class anxiously waiting for their annual field trip. Four students, Lucy, Zack, Jacob and Sarah piled on the bus. As they arrived at the swimming park, the bus stopped and all of the kids jumped right out of the bus. Then Lucy said to Zack, "This is going to be the best field trip ever."

Once we were going into the hallway, Sara saw a big red sign that said, "Closed for the winter, not enough money to heat the pool. The kids were so disappointed. They went to the office and asked the lifeguard, "Why don't you have enough money to heat the pool?"

And the lifeguard responded, "We used all of our money to buy new tiles for outside."

Sadly, the kids returned to the school, wondering what they could do to help.

Suddenly Jacob had an idea. "Let's work together to raise enough money to help heat the pool," he said.

All the children collected books and toys and had a huge garage sale. When Zack and Jacob counted the money, realizing they earned enough money, they went into the office (and) presented the lifeguard the money.

A few days later, the pool was finally open and all the children enjoyed their field trip. The lifeguard was really impressed with the kids' hard work to help their local pool center.

[Last modified March 15, 2007, 06:38:28]