Two 6-Year-Olds Drown While Picking Flowers for Mother's Day

Tragic!

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS - Six-year-olds Yamesha Phillips and Torey Day were kindergarten friends who roamed the neighborhood Sunday looking for flowers for Mother's Day. But when the two came across a pool in an abandoned Muskegon Heights home's backyard, they got dangerously close.

Relatives said Day fell first into the pool, and Phillips tried to save him by tossing him a rope, but ended up falling in after him. "She was a sweetheart and I can't be upset with my baby," said Youshemia Phillip, the little girl's mom. "She gave her life for somebody else's, and that was just the God in her."

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The house, which is in the 2500 block of Howden Street, was recently abandoned. Some neighbors believe the pool was drained and had accumulated water from recent rainfall. But Phillips' family said the water was up to an adult's chin in the shallow end when they tried to pull the two children out. The pool was not covered but was in a gated area.

MORE http://www.fox17online.com/news/landing/fox17-news-muskegon-heights-double-drowning,0,6205776.story

This case breaks my heart.

It's all the more reason that parents should put their kids in swimming lessons so that stuff like this can be avoided. The Y offers swimming lessons year-round in many places for free. And even if you choose to use an individual to teach the lessons, they are pretty cheap, usually.

So sad for these two families.

More of reason parents should watch their kids. Swim lesson at the Y is not cheap its $45 a month for swim lesson 1 time a week without a membership. If you have the membership ($550 a year) You still pay $20 a month for lessons. The Y recommends at lest 30 lessons that's not cheap.

Awwwww just soooo Heartbreaking

raying:God Bless these two precious Angels & their Families

:angel:Yamesha Phillips and Torey Day :angel:

Very Very SAD. I can see why the company I work for will not insure vacant property

Bless the little angels...........

sad story, but i wonder how they know who fell in first and tried to save who? Someone else would have to have been there to know this?

The story says a younger child was with them and ran for help...there are several empty houses in my neighborhood and I just lectured my kids about avoiding any pools, creeks, etc...

sweetheart29 said:

More of reason parents should watch their kids. Swim lesson at the Y is not cheap its $45 a month for swim lesson 1 time a week without a membership. If you have the membership ($550 a year) You still pay $20 a month for lessons. The Y recommends at lest 30 lessons that's not cheap.

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I agree. It's very sweet that they wanted to get flowers for their moms, but letting 6 yr olds roam the neighborhood alone, is just too dangerous - no matter where you live.

RIP little princesses.

So, so sad

ziggy said:

Very Very SAD. I can see why the company I work for will not insure vacant property

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This is horribly sad. If this was a forclosed home, it was the banks responsibility to ensure the property was locked up, winterized if necessary and the fencing around the pool secure. In my area, a pool with a home is not necessarily a selling point. Too much liability......

Those poor little angels, doing something for their mommies and gone too soon.

It breaks my heart.

ETA: Also when a home is in forclosure the bank has their appraisers and people out there taking photo's of the property most often prior to the current owners having moved out...... I don't think it was the parents fault. I think it was most likely left unsecure by whichever bank or mortgage co forclosed on the home. - JMO

this is so sad......


as far as fencing up.....IDK my thoughts on this...we have a pool, not required to be fenced where we are. The end of our street is a canal and the other end of our street is the intercoastal. Obviously neither of those, nor the ocean is fenced. Keeping an eye on your kids comes to mind.

I live near a river that is a point of recreation for many families in the summer. EVERY summer, never fails, at least two or three kids die in the river here. Some are teens! And the adults who take them to the river can't swim, so they can't save the children. Yes, parents can be stupid sometimes. STILL, teaching our children how to swim well enough to save their lives is imperative.

You CAN get cheap or free swim lessons if you look around.

At the Y, check in late spring and early summer. There are often FREE swim lessons available either through the Red Cross or state initiatives.

Also check with your local Boys and Girls Club. Free swim lessons through them are frequently available.

And finally, if you live in a place where you can't arrange this, then find someone local who will teach. I have friends who, like me, have pools, and they teach for $10 a lesson.

I am a certified water safety instructor, and I teach neighborhood kids in the summer. I don't charge a cent. I don't teach them competitive swimming. I teach them basic swimming skills and then I teach them life-saving skills, should they ever find themselves in a situation with no one to help.

If you have a friend with a pool and if you can swim, get out and teach your child to swim. Teach him basics such as how to tread water, how to float on his back, how to dogpaddle.

We can't always watch our children. Eventually they will spend the night with friends who have pools. OR they may have a field trip with the school to a park by a lake. Just basic water skills can make the difference in life and death.

I grew up near the Long Island beaches, but did not know how to swim. My parents sent me and my siblings to swimming lessons, but my brother and I were traumatized by a bad instructor (my brother almost drowned in the incident) and, thereafter, I was never comfortable around water unless I had on a life jacket.

In the late 70s, I went to college at Auburn University in Alabama. There it was compulsory for all students to pass a swimming exam or else take classes to learn how to swim. I guess there was a number of children who drowned in the State of Alabama in boating and swimming accidents, so the state made it a necessary skill that was required of all University graduates in their state run schools.

In these classes, I overcame my fear of water and drowning. Now, I am not the greatest swimmer in the world, but at least I know what to do to save myself! IMHO, in a perfect world, swimming and life-saving basics should be taught in schools from a young age -- although I know that budget constraints would not make it possible.

I agree that swimming lessons are a basic necessity and parents should make sure that their kids know how to float, tread water, and dog paddle at minimum. If formal lessons are too expensive then they can teach these skills themselves at a local public pool or at a public lake beach.
My heart goes out to the families of these two, sweet children.

You just cannot leave children this age alone, to do anything. Swimming lessons and fences are all a good idea but they don't replace the job of the parents/caregivers. It's your duty to protect your children.

RIP Little ones