Dear Highland Park Neighbors, The recent round of posts about whether children and pets should be allowed in the reflecting pool at Highland Park illustrates how some people discuss calmly, while others prefer bullying to get their way. I will not be bullied on this mailing list by anyone. Maybe in the end most people will be fine with the consequences of letting kids and pets swim in the pool. On the other hand, maybe we'll end up saying you really should not even float boats. I, for one, would like to stick to the substance of the argument. The name- calling is getting in the way. SO: from the point of view of me, who says people should not swim or bathe in the reflecting pool, the arguments boil down to a few basic ones: 1. It's a reflecting pool. The swimming pool is down the road. 2. The risk of drowning is non-trivial and non-intuitive, especially with no lifeguards. Assume the water is chlorinated to reduce infections (not saying it is). Assume all parents are fine with resuscitating their kids, or someone else's. The odds of injury or drowning simply do not favor people who run and play in or around the water. According to the Mayo Clinic, most drownings occur very quickly, with parents nearby. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, most children who actually drown were only playing or walking near the water. Then there are all the injuries sustained to children who only almost drowned. I include the excerpts from their websites below. 3. There is some chance that the water is not chlorinated. If it is not, then the urinating that comes with swimming children and pets will cause infections or serious illness. 4. Property damage to the fountain and the pool. Curiously, I recall arguments against installing a reflecting pool some years ago when the plans were being made. You know what people I heard were worried about? Kids drowning. The counter-arguments then? "No one would be so stupid as to let their kid go swimming in it." Go figure. -EL (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/child-safety/CC00045) About 300 children under the age of 5 drown each year in U.S. swimming pools. At the time of such incidents, most victims were being supervised by one or both parents. Nearly 70 percent of the children were not expected to be near the pool when they were found in the water. It takes only a few minutes for a child to drown. More than three- quarters of children who drown at neighborhood pools are out of sight for less than five minutes. What's more, drowning is a silent death. There is no splashing to alert anyone that the child is in trouble. (http://www.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=media_20jul2005_e) “For every child that drowned in 2002–2003, there were 6 to 10 more who almost drowned and required hospitalization,” says Margaret Keresteci, Manager of Clinical Registries at CIHI. “When you take into account that one in four children in Ontario who experience near- drowning sustain permanent brain damage, you start to get an idea of how vital it is to make water safety a priority.” The most commonly recorded injuries in near-drowning incidents were hypoxia (lack of oxygen) and internal (lung) injuries (83%). Almost half (48%) of all near-drowning injuries in Ontario occurred among toddlers. Most drowning incidents do not actually involve people swimming. In fact, 76% of children involved in a drowning incident were playing or walking near water when drowning or near-drowning occurred."