REGINA – The day started out just like any other Tuesday, but it ended with four-year-old Dyson found face down unconscious in the pool at the Sandra Schmirler Leisure Centre.
“He was pretty much lying there dead (in the Saskatoon hospital),” said Dyson’s mom, Amanda Wood. “It’s the worst feeling a mother could ever go through.”
Dyson was on an excursion with the Regina Early Learning Centre at the time of near-drowning incident.
“We are of course reviewing all our practices in regards to field trips and particularly swimming,” said Mary Ann McGrath, executive director of the early learning centre. “We’ll be consulting with parents and taking a look at what we’ve been doing and maybe what we can do to move forward.”
The centre’s staff say there were ten children on the trip, aged three and four, and its policy is one adult to every five children.
“We were within guidelines for ratios. So we were meeting our guidelines and working hard to supervise the children and obviously something happened,” said McGrath.
“I feel that the Early Learning Centre of Regina needs to have more staff on outings,” said Wood.
Lifeguards and an off-duty firefighter helped save the boy’s life but the City of Regina is also reviewing whether anything could have been done to prevent this incident from happening.
“The city does take this seriously. It’s not just about policies and protocols and the procedures,” said Chris Holden, the city’s director of community development. “But if you don’t have those in place, you can’t give assurances to the general public.”
Wood hopes her family’s brush with death makes other parents learn more about the supervision of their children.
“Take a close watch on who watches your children, whether it’s school, a babysitter. I trusted somebody with my child’s life,” she said.
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