April 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 19

ager. Then, before any staff that was
involved goes home, an incident debriefing should be held. The manager
should also provide each person who
fills out an incident report form with
a copy for their personal records.
If during the course of providing
first aid guards learn personal details
about the victim that would never
otherwise be known, they must keep
that information confidential. Sharing it with friends, family or anyone,
other than personnel who need to
know in order to provide additional
care, can be seen as negligence.
Waivers and Standards
Since the diving coach carefully explained the risks of tower diving,
documented those explanations, and
had the student and/or a parent sign
the hold harmless agreement or waiver detailing the risks, the diver (and
parents) knew about, and agreed to
assume, the risks of tower diving.
However, the waiver does NOT protect the coach from unsafe or unreasonable actions. The coach always
has a duty to know the most current,
safest and most effective techniques
for tower diving and to make every
reasonable effort to keep divers safe.
Having and maintaining the appropriate certification is an important
tool to show that the coach is indeed
current about safe techniques.
It's also important that staff members be taught and know the aquatic standards set by their state. For
example, the state of Washington
has a 10/20 response time written
into its administrative code. Guards
are expected to see everyone in their
assigned area every 10 seconds and
make contact with a victim within 20
seconds. That's a total of 30 seconds
to see the victim and make contact.
The National Model Aquatic Health

Code (www.cdc.gov/healthywater/
pdf/swimming/pools/mahc/Complete-First-Edition-MAHC-Annex.
pdf ) and the Red Cross also use this
standard.

As we approach the start of the
pool season across the country, now
is a good time to review your process
for responding to incidents, whether
minor or major, and hold refresher

It's also important that staff members be taught and
know the aquatic standards set by their state.
Dealing with the Media
What do you think when you hear
people say " no comment " on camera?
While only the designated public relations or media contact for your agency should ever respond to media inquiries, simply saying " no comment "
may not be the best approach. It might
be helpful to have a standard response
such as: " I'm sorry; I don't have any
information yet. We're still working
on this incident. The PR director (or
designee) will be ready to answer your
questions as soon as possible. "

sessions for staff about the level of
response/care expected and how to
document and respond to any incidents that may occur.
Greg Schmidt, LGIT/WSIT/BESTGuard IT/AFOI, Aquatic Center Manager at Eastern Washington University,
contributed to this article.

Sonia Myrick is the Managing Editor of Parks
& Recreation magazine (smyrick@nrpa.org).

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