Dad jumped into pool at SingPost Centre to save son, 3, allegedly left unsupervised by swim coach

A father claimed that his three-and-a-half-year-old son nearly drowned when he was left unsupervised during a swimming lesson, and he had to jump into the pool himself to save the boy.

The incident occurred on Sep. 6 at around 3:20pm. at Little Splashes Aquatics' SingPost Centre outlet.

The school has suspended the swimming teacher from immediate effect as a precautionary measure.

"I had to run from the viewing corridor"

The father, who asked to be identified as Wang, told Mothership his son had been in the pool with two other children and one instructor, with no other supervisory staff present.

It was the boy's fourth lesson.

The school describes the class as a Children Independent Class, where children take part in the lesson without a parent or guardian in the pool.

Wang claimed that parents are not allowed at the poolside during these classes, but had to wait in a viewing area away from the pool.

He told Mothership that his son and another toddler were left unattended with no flotation devices while the teacher attended to another child.

"They were instructed to stand on a small, submerged platform that was completely out of the instructor's direct line of sight," said Wang.

"Suddenly, my son slipped off the platform into deep water and began drowning. Because the instructor was guiding another child, she did not notice him drowning."

Wang said that he had to run from the viewing area into the swim school office and then tap a button to open the pool access door, run up a flight of stairs, reach the pool and jump in to save his child.

He does not know how long his son was underwater.

"Sorry, I didn't see"

Wang said the instructor only noticed when he entered the pool.

She allegedly responded, "Sorry I didn't see," then continued teaching the rest of the class without checking on his son or alerting other staff.

The CCTV

While Wang calmed his son down, his wife went to the reception area and asked to view the CCTV footage.

According to Wang, the outlet manager “was reluctant” and only showed her the footage on his mobile phone after she said she would make a police report. She was not allowed to record the footage.

Wang said the manager acknowledged that the incident was “unacceptable”, but then questioned whether their son had been briefed by the coach on his first lesson not to step off the submerged water platform, and why he had stepped off it.

"We were shocked. Firstly, we were not aware of any briefing, and secondly, how do you expect a toddler to understand a safety briefing?"

Wang said the family was not given a copy of the footage.

"Why didn't the teacher save me?"

Wang said his son has been having nightmares.

"He repeatedly asked us, ‘Why didn't the teacher save me? I will die’.”

He said he and his wife have also been suffering from shock and insomnia.

The family has lodged a police report as well as reports to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Sport Singapore.

What the school said

In response to Mothership's queries, Little Splashes Aquatics said it takes any incident involving the safety and well-being of a child extremely seriously, and is conducting a full internal review including of the CCTV footage, the lesson arrangements and the actions taken by the teacher.

It said the lesson was a Children Independent Class, conducted at a teacher-to-student ratio of 1:3, and that the pool is approximately 1m deep.

Students waiting their turn are positioned on a submerged platform approximately 0.5m in height.

Its preliminary review found that the child was waiting on the platform while the teacher was conducting an activity with another student, and that during this period he stepped off the platform's edge into the water.

The school said the police attended, reviewed the matter including the CCTV footage, and have since concluded their review with no further action being taken.

It said:

"Notwithstanding this, Little Splashes Aquatics considers the safety and well-being of our students to be our highest responsibility, regardless of whether further police action is taken."

Teacher suspended

The school said the teacher has been suspended from teaching duties from the date of the incident and will remain so until further notice:

"Where the review identifies any breach of our procedures or other concerns relating to the teacher's conduct, appropriate corrective and/or disciplinary action will be taken, which may include termination of employment and/or action relating to her teaching licence."

The review is specifically examining the teacher's positioning and line of sight, her supervision of students waiting their turn, her awareness of all students throughout the activity, her response when the child entered the water, and the actions taken immediately afterwards.

The school said it did not wish to prejudge her conduct before the review is complete.

It added that it has reached out to the child's parents directly and remains in communication with them

It would also assess whether further safeguards, staff training, supervision measures or operational procedures should be introduced across its programmes.

It said it would prefer not to speculate further while the review is ongoing.