North cancels swimming after death

Davenport school administrators are taking a closer look at district policies governing swim classes after a 15-year-old North High School student drowned earlier this week.

District officials also said they have suspended swimming classes at North for the remainder of the present term. The pool will be open, however, for North Family Y members.

Kwong Lee, a sophomore, was found unresponsive in the 11-foot-deep end of the pool during a regular school physical education class Monday afternoon. He was brought to the surface and onto the pool deck by a student and the PE instructor, Davenport police said. CPR was performed at the scene, but the teenager could not be revived.

Capt. David Struckman said police completed their investigation into Lee’s death Tuesday and officially have classified it an accident.

“That’s what it is, a tragic accident,” he said. “Preliminary autopsy reports showed no evidence of any criminal actions or violations leading to his death.”

According to police reports, Lee was in a beginning swimming class with 31 other students. The class was using half of the pool at the adjacent North Y facility, and Y members were on the other side.

“There were 32 students in half of the pool with their instructor, and on the other half of pool, the Y side, there were two people doing water aerobics and another person doing laps,” Struckman said. “There was a lifeguard on duty on the Y side.”

“It was first day in the pool for this particular class and the students had just finished a briefing by the instructor,” he said. “The students were then allowed in the pool to get used to the water. A short time later, the teacher summoned all of the students to the edge of the pool to begin instruction and, at that time, the victim was spotted on the pool bottom.”

Davenport school administrators said they met with Lee’s family Tuesday morning at the high school, a location requested by the boy’s parents. 

Karen Farley, the district’s communications specialist, said swimming classes have been suspended not only out of respect for the family, but also because the district has heard from other concerned students and their families.

“I don’t know that there are ever any right answers when something like this happens,” she said. “We’ve been providing a swimming curriculum for 60-plus years with no other incidents, but now that must be set aside. We need to look at our practices and philosophies and how the swimming classes are carried out — and not just at North, but district-wide.”

Graduation requirements in the Davenport School District include four terms of physical education. Within the course, one of the units is swimming.

“Students don’t sign up for swimming in particular. They sign up for a unit of PE. They may end up getting swimming once or more than once, and each unit typically lasts two weeks,” Farley said. “The students don’t really have the option to choose another course.”

Farley also said that instructors do not ask about each student’s ability to swim because the course is designed for beginners.

“The assumption on the part of swimming instructors is that all students are beginners, despite how they may self-evaluate,” she said. “Classes always start out on poolside, with safety reminders, class objectives and things like that.”

As for the number of students in the pool at the time of Lee’s drowning, Farley said class size in the district’s three high schools can vary depending upon the time of day and other factors.

“It is required that the instructor have Red Cross lifesaving certification, not that there be additional supervision in the pool,” she said. “That’s how it has been for a long time in the district.”

School officials said the instructor in Lee’s class did his best to resuscitate the teen.

“The word that keeps coming up with the instructor is ‘broken-hearted,’ ” Farley said. “I know there were absolutely heroic efforts, not just from our instructor, but from the Y staff and the medical responders. This was just terrible for everyone.”

Counselors trained in crisis response were brought to the school Monday afternoon and will remain available to students in the coming days.

Annie Lee, Kwong’s 16-year-old sister, who is a junior at North, said shortly after her brother’s death that neither of them were able to swim.

In fact, just two hours before the accident, she refused to get in the water during her PE class at the high school.

“No one asked me if I could swim and I did not want to get in the water. I didn’t care if I failed gym,” she said. “I just sat on the bleachers.”

 The Lee family moved to the Quad-Cities last year from the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Y officials said Tuesday that the accident occurred during a state-mandated PE class and was a “school district function and activity.” However, they want to get out the word that the boy’s tragic death reiterates the importance of teaching children to swim.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone involved,” said Frank Klipsch, the Scott County Family Y president and chief executive officer. “We have to be sure we don’t doubt the importance of swimming lessons. We are located on the river and there are so many activities where kids in our area are near water. This tragedy has made us even more committed to teaching kids to swim.”

Rachelle Treiber can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or rtreiber@qctimes.com.

PE Curriculum

Here is the physical education curriculum requirement for Iowa high schools:

“Physical education shall include the physical fitness activities that increase cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and flexibility; sports and games; tumbling and gymnastics; rhythms and dance; water safety; leisure and lifetime activities. All physically able students shall be required to participate in the program for a minimum of one-eighth unit during each semester they are enrolled except as otherwise provided in this paragraph.’’

Kathi Slaughter, a spokeswoman for the department, said the state leaves the definition of exactly what constitutes water safety up to local school districts. That is because many rural schools do not have access to a swimming pool.