Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > June > 28 > Entry
Get off the high dive!
One more thrill, or terror if you were like me, enjoyed by kids in our day is passing to a bygone era.
Lawyers are making community pools say goodbye to the high dive.
Here’s an excerpt from from a column in the Wall Street Journal by Steve Moore:
I’m now an official victim of the trial lawyers. So are my kids and the 800 members of our community pool that opened this summer without a high diving board.
The three-meter board had been a fixture of our pool at Chesterbrook Swim Club in Fairfax County, Va., for as long as anyone can remember. But the county has declared that it can no longer afford to pay the liability insurance for it — and so we’ve been grounded.
Most of the parents and kids share my disappointment at being cheated out of one of the great joys of summertimes past. No high board means no more “atomic” cannonballs, can openers, jack knives and watermelons, the kind of attention-grabbing dives that boys love to perform, sending a quarter of the pool’s water spraying onto unsuspecting sunbathers nearby. And no more graceful teenage girls either, performing double flips with a twist, entering the water with hardly a ripple.
So why can’t we just have a sign that reads: “Jump off this board at your own risk”? Some of our club members, many of whom are lawyers, say the elimination of the high board is for the safety of “the children.”
Moore says there are lots of drownings and injuries in swimming pools across the country each year, but few of them actually involve diving boards.
Which brings us back to the trial lawyers. Diving accidents may be rare, but when they occur, lawyers become relentless in their quest for a jackpot jury verdict. In one famous 1993 case, a 14-year-old boy in Washington state took a “suicide dive” — headfirst with no arms out for protection — off the board of a neighbor’s pool. He was tragically paralyzed from the neck down when he hit his head on the bottom of the pool. Despite the boy’s own unsafe behavior, the parents’ legal team sued every imaginable party—the neighbors, the pool-construction company, the diving-board manufacturer, the pool industry—and the family won a $10 million jury award.
Ever since, it’s been off to the races. Even cases in which there is no negligence on anyone’s part can lead to jury awards of $5 million or more.
Two of my daughters count jumping off the high dive last summer among their greatest acomplishments. And when we joined the pool, having a high dive was one of the pool manager’s big selling points since so few still do.
What can be done to save the high dive?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Sports and Athletics
Comments
By Beth
June 29, 2006 9:39 PM | Link to this
Probably not much. Another sad commentary on our society, not just the litigious part, but the fact that today’s parents are afraid to let kids be kids. Yes, there are dangers. Always were. Yes, we should use common sense. I remember being young & not doing so. I was lucky, I guess.But I also worry about 10 year olds who are not allowed to walk 2 blocks to school in a decent neighborhood. They are in danger of growing up afraid of everything.By Mary
June 28, 2006 1:51 PM | Link to this
Speaking of whining, why do people assume their fellow taxpayers owe them a high dive, health and liability insurance to cover their high risk entertainment, and ignorant runaway jurists to help them make paydirt over stupidity and risks - also at taxpayer expense. Yes, I also jumped or dove off high boards at a community supported pool, but there are a lot more serious issues for the government to be working. If people want a high dive, they can join a pool club that has one or build one themselves and stop the big brother government mentality about everything - the same government that is also supposed to solve issues like environment, waste management, poverty, food safety, national security, immigration, safe water and health care while cutting taxes.By Rob
June 28, 2006 12:18 PM | Link to this
I distinctly recall the High Dive at my pool when I was a kid. To me at age 10, it looked to be about 700’ high when looking down into the water. Mastering the fear of plummeting to my death was was a major accomplishment for that Summer! I am sorry that my children may never have the same chance.