Izzy Scott Foundation: Ensuring safety around water

AUGUSTA, GA (WJBF) – The most recent drowning in our area took the life of a two-year-old Augusta boy this week.

We still have several weeks left in pool season, and safe swimming advocates want to ensure you and your family stay safe and continues to turn its loss into a way to save lives.

“It’s just one of those things that you can’t avoid, right? I mean, your kids love to be around water,” said Walter Scott, President of the Izzy Scott Foundation.

The Izzy Scott Foundation was founded when Walter Scott lost his four-year-old son, who drowned while taking private swimming lessons in 2022. The incident led to Izzy’s Law in Georgia, which sets a guideline for private swim coaches to follow when conducting a lesson.

“A lot of private swim instructors will say, ‘We’ll get your child trained, and they will be ready to swim in one week, but we need 100% focus from the child, which means you can’t stay. That’s a red flag,’ said Scott.

Always having an extra set of eyes during a swim lesson is essential when a situation may happen. So even if the parent cannot stay, it is important that there are others to keep an eye out for.

“I try to stay out of the way so that he can focus on the instructor, but I do like that I’m able to see like what’s happening,” said Vanity Youngblood, a parent.

The Izzy Scott Foundation is the resource group for Izzy’s Law. It provides information on safety around lakes, the beach, and anything related to swim safety, and it also helped provide 120 free swim lessons at the Kroc Center.

“We do everything that we can to kind of provide information to everyone in the state and also nationally on the things to look for when they’re actually signing their kids up for swim lessons,” said Scott.

Parents who received the lessons tell me their kids are becoming more confident in and around the water since being in the class.

“Having a child that had never been in a pool before, really, I thought that he wasn’t going to do as well as he is. He’s getting more acquainted with the water. The instructors are great, and so he’s having fun. You just want your kids to have that vital lesson to be able to know what to do if there ever in a predicament,” said Youngblood.

Experts tell me that the most important thing is to make sure your child has on a life jacket until they know how to swim. If you want to sign up for swim lessons at the Kroc Center, you can find that on their website . In addition to staying updated with the Izzy Scott Foundation, you can learn about events, click here .

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