School board's swim test protocol unclear days after student's death in Algonquin Park lake
Jeremiah Perry, 15, died after slipping underwater when swimming during a school trip
The country's largest school board has yet to provide details about swim safety protocol for excursions involving students, days after the death of a 15-year-old student on a canoe trip in Algonquin Provincial Park.
Shari Schwartz-Maltz, a spokesperson for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), noted that all students are required to pass a swim test before going on such trips, but she could not say where and when the tests took place.
"One of the standard swim tests is conducted in the pool, it would involve water safety, laps, underwater endurance," said Schwartz-Maltz. She said for canoe excursions, most, if not all, students are required to take an outdoor swim test in a lake.
There have been questions about the school board's safety measures ever since Jeremiah Perry's body was found Tuesday in a lake in Algonquin Park. The student was swimming when he slipped under the water and didn't resurface, according to witnesses.
Lifeguard was present
One student who spoke outside of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute said everyone who went on the canoe trip had to take a swim test "two or three" weeks ago. Boran Balci, 17, a friend of Perry who was swimming in the water at the same time, said they were taken up to Sparrow Lake — about 150 kilometres north of Toronto — and spent two days there to pass a swim test.
Clearly tired and in shock over the death of his friend, Balci couldn't remember exactly what the test entailed.
Monday Gala, the principal at C.W. Jefferys, would not comment on the swim test and what it involved.
"We are looking for answers, I get that," said Gala, after he was repeatedly pressed by reporters outside his school Thursday.
"This matter is an active investigation and everybody is sad about this. And for me, actually, I think that is where the focus should be. The focus being on a grieving family, on a school that is dealing with losing someone they know."
Naijia Charlie Johnson, a student at the high school who went on the Algonquin trip in May 2016, wrote to CBC Toronto via Facebook that she felt "very, very, very safe on the trip" because of numerous procedures in place.
"Last year you had to have completed everything in order to even step foot on the bus," she wrote.
She said that included passing swims tests both with and without life-jackets — though she says students were never allowed in the water without them.
A TDSB document on excursion procedures says canoeing and swimming are considered "high-care" activities.
And according to a TDSB parental permission form, for a water program in Scarborough, PFDs (personal flotation devices) "are worn on the waterfront at all times unless a swim test is completed (treading water 1 minute, 50m swimming with confidence)."
Guidelines for school canoe trips
The Ontario Physical and Health Education Association (OPHEA) works with school boards to establish safety guidelines for excursions, though a spokesperson told CBC Toronto it was not involved in the TDSB's summer program.
In OPHEA's guidelines for canoe trips, there is a mandatory swim test. That swim test includes:
- Rolling entry (backward or forward) into deep water at a depth of at least of 2.75 metres.
- Treading water for one minute.
- Swimming 50 metres continuously.
According to OPHEA's recommendations, the swim test must be administered by a certified instructor or lifeguard.
Parent says daughter on trip unable to swim
But outside the school on Wednesday, a mother whose daughter was on the same school trip said her teenager doesn't know how to swim.
"I said make sure you have on your life-jacket. She said, 'Yeah I have life-jacket,'" said Sharda Singh. Despite her daughter's inability to swim, Singh told reporters she didn't have any safety concerns ahead of the school trip.
The TDSB said three of the six adults who were travelling with the 33 students had life-saving certification.
Balci said a lifeguard was watching when he, Jeremiah and the other students went into the water on Tuesday evening — adding that "if the lifeguard is not there, you can't go."
It is unclear how many lifeguards were watching, and how many students were in the water at the time.
Three years ago, the TDSB cancelled a trip to a nature camp in Bancroft, Ont., for Amesbury Middle School students, citing safety concerns. At the time, the board said there wasn't sufficient proof that safety requirements around activities such as swimming and archery had been met.
