Israel Scott, 4, Drowns In Georgia Pool During Swimming Lesson

A Black mother in Hephzibah, Georgia, has lost one of her children and the swimming instructor whose care he was in hasn’t given her the answers she’s looking for as to how.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, 4-year-old Israel Scott drowned last month after attending a swimming lesson with Lexie TenHuisen, the owner and instructor of Swim With Lexie. Israel’s mother, Dori Scott, said her son was anxious about the class and even asked her that day, “What if I drown?”

Source: Israel “Izzy” Spencer Scott Foundation GoFundMe

Scott was one of ten children receiving a swimming lesson and, according to Burke County Sheriff Alfonzo Williams, Israel at one point “got into the deep water of the pool undetected,” which just sounds like a really polite way of saying the person or people who were charged with watching all of these children failed to watch over at least one of them properly.

From the Chronicle:

Scott was noticed by TenHuisen’s granddaughter after she went to remove the pool vacuum from the shallow end of the pool. TenHuisen had just gotten out of the pool with the children to dry off after the last child’s swimming relay, according to Sheriff Williams.

After hearing her granddaughter’s pleas for help, TenHuisen “immediately jumped back into the pool to rescue Israel,” Williams wrote. “At this time, Israel (Scott) was unresponsive…”

A few things to note:

First, TenHuisen reportedly told responding police it was the group’s second swimming lesson, that Israel was not afraid of water and that “he was just all over the pool.”  Secondly, investigators noted that “there were no markings of pool depth in or around the pool.” Third, according to Israel’s mother, she was told that parents couldn’t stay to watch their children during the class. According to TODAY, she was told that rule was meant to prevent the children from being distracted.

“I understood because I am a hairstylist and know that children can act differently when their parents are around,” Dori Scott told TODAY. “But I didn’t want to leave my baby.”

So, the first obvious question—why the hell is a swim instructor telling parents of small children that they can’t stay during the lesson? If what Scott said is accurate, that is an absurdly irresponsible policy. Sure, children might be distracted by the presence of their parents, but having them there would also keep more eyes on the children so none of them venture off to the unmarked deep end of the pool, which is especially necessary if the instructor is going to let a 4-year-old be “just all over the pool.” 

Dori told police she asked how her child got into the deep end in the first place and TenHuisen said “she didn’t know.” The police report noted that “Dori asked, ‘What do you mean that you don’t know?'” (Exactly. WTF?)

Still, Williams gave a statement last week saying the autopsy concluded Israel’s death was a result of accidental drowning and that he and Assistant District Attorney Rex Meyers determined “the case lacks sufficient evidence to prove criminal negligence” and the sheriff’s office is “unable to move forward with this case.”

But that hasn’t stopped Scott from demanding answers, which she can’t seem to get out of the swimming instructor she trusted with her son.

“We don’t have a concrete narrative of what happened,” civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing the Scott family, told TODAY. Merritt also said the family has not filed a lawsuit in Israel’s death yet but they are in the “fact-finding phase” and will “make a determination for the family.”

Here’s what Dory posted to her Facebook page:

“How does signing your baby up for swim lessons to learn water safety and to prevent them from drowning lead to your baby drowning at swim lessons? How does the sheriff’s office investigate, and come to tell you that the instructor doesn’t know, nor did anyone see what happened? How is no one held accountable for this and my son has been gone for almost 3 weeks? … I have no closure, no answers and no Israel.”

Scott also told TODAY that she hasn’t gotten an explanation from TenHuisen as to how her son died in her pool. Instead, all she said she has received is a Venmo refund for the class, which she called “a slap in the face.”

Here’s what TenHuisen told the police, according to TODAY:

TenHuisen told police that after an exercise in which students were asked to pick up rings from the bottom of the pool (which she said Izzy was “proud” to do),she realized class was going two minutes over, so she asked students to then swim a lap in a group, according to the sheriff’s report. TenHuisen said she left the pool when she thought all the kids were out, the sheriff’s report says, as parents were arriving to pick up their children.

Scott, who has three other children, one of whom had been taught by TenHuisen, declared in another Facebook post that she and her family “will not stop until justice is served.”

“This shouldn’t have happened and we want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she wrote. You have to be held accountable for your actions.”

The Scott family has established a GoFundMe to create a foundation in Izzy’s honor to raise awareness and protect children against instructor-led drownings. They also have a Change.Org petition that they help will draw more attention to their case. You can view that HERE.