Last September, Stephens County Search and Rescue Dive Team responded to the drowning of 20-month-old Charlie Scott in Lake Hartwell, something that has left a lasting impact on all involved and on the community.
For that reason, Stephens County will hold a free community water safety awareness class at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 1, at the Stephens County Chamber of Commerce in Toccoa.
Charlie’s mother, Lori Scott, will speak during the class that will be instructed by Stephens County Search and Rescue Dive Chief Ben Stanfield.
Stephens County Emergency Management/9-1-1 Director Danielle Rhodes said the lives of the family, emergency responders, and the community were forever impacted by that tragedy 11 months ago.
“Just a terrible tragic accident but it really uniquely in a way devastated – of course devastated her family, but it devastated the community because of her age you know that's tragic with any age but specifically because she was so young,” Rhodes said. “Through brainstorming and talking with my dive chief, it turned into a ‘let's have a class, a water safety class, that we can kind of give people some tips and some things that people don't think about, they don't tend to think about in the moment, or it usually doesn't affect them until after something happens’.”
Lori Scott, mother of Charlie Scott, said since losing her daughter to the waters of Lake Hartwell at 20 months old, she has wanted to help prevent other families from going through that experience. When Stephens County Emergency Management personnel reached out to her about speaking to the upcoming class, she knew she needed to work with them.
“I didn't really know what to do or how to go about it,” Scott said. “I just knew I needed to channel my grief into something positive. Then they – I guess had gotten together and talked about it – they contacted me and I went and had a little sit-down meeting with them, and they asked me if I would be willing to speak and I told him I would try my best. I'm not really a public speaker and sometimes it's hard for me to talk about Charlie but that is something that I had wanted to do.”
Scott says Stephens County offering the class is very important to her and to the community.
“It just means a lot to me because drowning is so common, and people really don't know it until it happens to them,” Scott said. “I had no idea until I lost Charlie that it's the No. 1 cause of death in children, you know, ages 1 to 4. Then I read the CDC website and it's just amazing how it is so common and people really – because we get so complacent around water and we drink it, we bathe in it, we play in it, it's just so natural for us not to think of how dangerous it can also be.”
Rhodes says it’s time for emergency personnel and community safety instructors to shift the focus of what is taught.
“One thing that I thought about when we were trying to bring all this together was that they do a really good job of teaching kids Stop, Drop and Roll, and they do tornado drills and now even at some places, active shooter drills, but there's really not a lot of things out there that teach kids water safety,” Rhodes said. “It's usually left to the parents to do that, which is understandable. However, when you think about the statistics of drowning being the leading cause of children ages 1 to 4, we really need to do a better job of educating parents and children on water safety. We're not losing kids to fires. We're losing them to water.”
Scott says it only took a few seconds for Charlie to be gone.
“I changed her from a swimming diaper to a regular diaper,” Scott said. “I took her lifejacket off. Usually, I wouldn't have even done that that close to the water, but I took her lifejacket and stood her up on the dock. She had shoes on. She had her paci in her mouth. She couldn't have been maybe three feet standing from her 10-year-old sister. I turned to get the fishing poles, grabbed them in my hand, and I turn around and she's not standing there anymore. We've never heard a splash – nothing.”
Scott urged anyone who is around water with children to attend the upcoming class in Toccoa on Sept. 1.
“In the blink of an eye, your whole life can be changed forever,” Scott said. “And I think this class is important to bring awareness and to bring knowledge and to show parents just as much as children. I have said that from the beginning I think that parents need to be more educated because if you don't know that it can happen or you don't know how easily it can happen, then you're not going to look for it, you're not going to be as cautious. I'm now overly cautious and almost paranoid about water and my children being around water, but I also know better now, to be more aware and more observant about the possibility because it can happen to anybody.”
Advance registration for the class is required through Stephens County Emergency Management Agency. An online EVENBRITE link is available on the Stephens County Search and Rescue Facebook page, or those interested can register by calling (706) 898-5395.
