It should be MANDATORY that ALL children under the age of 12 wear Life Vests - PERIOD !!!!!!!

Having children under 12 be forced to wear life jackets is ridiculous. How will they ever learn to swim? Children under 8 should not participate in open swim with camps. Young children or poor swimmers should be within arms length of a parent/guardian at all times. I was just at Roosevelt last week and sitting next to us was a grandmother with her two young grandchildren (probably ages 3 and 7). The youngest was wearing a life jacket which somehow made her feel comfortable sitting on the lawn chair and letting the two kids run completely unsupervised. She was reading a book the whole time. Anything could have happened to those kids. Having all kids wear life jackets is not the solution. Supervising children throughly is.

Bravo commentary #2. I have 2 boys, one of whom was in camp with the deceased, they had just become friends. Water is dangerous; it is beholden on us as parents to make sure that if our children are exposed to it that they are capable of handling themselves in it, or the people charged with caring for them are aware they have not been taught to swim. I see parents defer this responsibility to lifeguards all the time their preference being the latest novel or facebook post. Bottom line: Teach your kids to swim, and to be comfortable around water as soon as they can walk. Nothing can take away from the magnitude of this tragedy, but if this recalibrates the lack of personal responsibility for our children's wellbeing at least something positive with have come from it.

The Park District camps do a BIG swim test and we sign a vaiver. The swim test consisits of a child jumping into the deep end of the pool, at Flick, where my son goes, swimming next to the life guard that has a floating device with them, then the child has to swim back to the other side, with the life quard, if the guard feels the child is struggling, or winded by that time, or grabs on to the tube, then they wear a vest. My son was in swim classes since he was 3. Been in the water since he was born. He is very weary of jumping off the platform or the slides and will do so when he is ready. He likes to watch. I have a strange feeling, this poor child, was up on the deck squirting the hoses, and wanted to watch the jumpers. Somehow got into the line and jumped. Just my opinion. Not a truth or a rumor. Just stating that the Park District does a great job determining how the child swims. Even asked me if I was comfortable with my son going to the swimming portion of the camp. I was fine with it. I know my child knows his limitations. He does the slides at flick and jumps the low board. His goal is the high board this year, maybe not? I just saw the picture of the pool and people are saying he was found in the activity pool. That is not the picture of the activity pool. It is clearly the diving pool. Why wasn't he wearing a life vest? Only god knows, and he is with him now, holding him to his safety. Our neighbors kid, was in the specialed class with this boy

Which leads me to the first response. My 9 yr. old only wears a life jacket when he is on our boat, ready to swim in the lake. He is capable of jumping out of the boat without one, and going to the ladder, but we keep it on him, I even wear one while in the water, because if it is a hot day, the water is wonderful, and I know I cannot tread water for an hour, unless it is an emergency. You learn how to float on the back, that was the first thing that my son's instructor taught him. But when you jump from a high board, you go in deep, and at times, you loose your bearing and not know which end is up. For this poor child, that could have happened. God bless this child and his family and friends. My heartfelt condolences!!! <3