Southwest Florida experiencing shortage of swim instructors

A family is mourning the loss of their 2-year-old daughter after she drowned in a family swimming pool.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett’s daughter Arrayah fell into the pool. She was pronounced dead a short time later.

According to the CDC, more children ages one to four die from drowning than any other cause of death. For children from ages five to 14, drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death after motor vehicle crashes.

Some are turning to swim lessons to help better prepare their children, but a problem is standing in their way.

“We are super short-staffed,” said Lindsay Pursglove, at Swimtastic Swim School.

Porsglove owns the Swimtastic Swim School.

She currently has 11 instructors, when there are typically 15 to 20.

“Worst case scenario, we’re canceling or turning families away at the pool, which breaks my heart,” Pursglove said. “I hate to have to do that.”

She used to teach 400 students to swim during the summer. But now she is down to 300.

“We have a very interesting like phenomenon going on right now. We’re having the shortage of the staff. But then we need customers to fill that staff hours,” she said.

That’s because Swimtastic has reduced its hours due to staff shortages.

“Group classes are a four-to-one ratio. We can’t put more than four kids in a class. So we have to make sure our classes are full and running as many classes as we can,” Pursglove said.

And right now, Swimtastic is only offering those classes during the afternoon.

They don’t have people to offer evening options for parents and their kids.

They’re not alone.

“We work closely with our competitors, which is interesting. But yeah, everybody is short-staffed,” Pursglove said.

Pursglove fears the shortage could make obtaining lessons hard for kids. And that lack of education could lead to more drownings, something which Katie Heck, with the Lehigh Acres Fire Department said is a very serious issue.

“Drownings are one of the leading causes of death for children across the country,” Heck said. “We do respond to them, unfortunately, frequently out here.”