Disclosure: I work for the company behind joplin.com where we don’t pretend to be journalists but instead post news releases as we get them. We had all four of these stations as clients way back when.
This is just sad but worth saying something about. Here in Joplin, MO today a six year old boy drowned at a local water park (The Swimmin’ Hole) that my niece works at. She told me about this earlier today and the whole thing was just sad.
Here is the back story, Joplin Journalism at it’s finest… via KOAM (CBS Affiliate) but you would never know that by looking at their news article link. The “someone” mentioned in the article was my niece Amber who I’m told worked on the boy for over 20 minutes until the ambulance showed up.
The local ABC / NBC Affiliates had even less to report. The story was filed at 4:31 PM and although it mentions the boys name they state that the boys name was not release. Please learn how to update your story guys. This is just horrible (I did bold the mistake):
An afternoon summer outing turns fatal. Newton County emergency crews were called to the Swimming Hole water park near Joplin about one o’clock this afternoon. Six year Ethan Cory from Joplin was pulled from the water and taken to St. Johns Regional Medical center. Efforts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the hospital… The name of the child has not yet been released. An autopsy is planned for tomorrow morning to determine the actual cause of death. The case remains under investigation.
The Joplin Globe listed the boy’s age as being 61 but they caught the mistake and fixed it. Evidentially people do read what’s on their site. KSN could learn a lesson from them…
I’m not a journalist nor do I pretend to be one, but here is what I know based on my conversation with Amber:
The water park should have been shut down or should have at least voluntarily shut down due to the nature of what occurred today. From what my niece told me I’m saddened to think that it takes something of this nature to open people’s eyes. If they were breaking the law by not having enough people, not paying people, and not having properly trained staff then they should be closed down and dealt with criminally.
I’m not sure what to think of our local Boys and Girls Club honestly. When you take your kids there you’re trusting that they will be safer then the alternative. I’m told that the director was there at the pool when the accident happened and was beside himself. I would like to think that this is all the park’s fault but some part of me may unfairly question how a six year old could be at a water park without someone being around.
My heart does go out to his family. I can’t imagine the pain, questions, sadness, and other emotions that they must be going through.