Sad news

A seven-year-old boy from Minnesota drowned in nearby Lake Delton yesterday. Apparently he wandered away from the condo where his family was staying and no one missed him for a while. He was a special needs child and was found dead some hours later.

Another child drowned at one of the water park resorts not long ago. My friend Rick in Iowa said that his brother knows that family. Particularly tragic was that one of the lifeguards had seen the boy and thought something was wrong, but when he went to a supervisor he was told not to interfere. The supervisor thought the kid was just fooling around, and apparently a lot of parents complain if the lifeguards go into the pools too often. They think it bothers the kids and ruins their fun by making it feel like they are being watched too closely.

In the case of the water parks, their pools and other water activities get very crowded this time of year. It must be extremely difficult for the lifeguards to keep an eye on what's happening.