Fracas at the pool
Wow ... this is going to be a bizarre one tonight. Let me know if I'm overreacting ....
We (as in my neighbors next door, and down the street) decided we wanted to take the kids to the town pool for some swimming this evening. I had Molly, my next door neighbor Sabrina had her two daughters (ages 9&8) as well as the visiting granddaughter of another neighbor across the street (age 8), and our other neighbor Trish had her daughter (age 4). So we loaded up two vans and took off.
We had about an hour of nice if chilly swimming. As the evening wore on, several of the lifeguards were getting a little rowdy. Dumping buckets of water on each other, general horseplay, nothing serious. I had Molly and two of the other girls with me in the shallow end playing catch. The other two adults and the other kids were sitting on the deck warming up. Suddenly two of the lifeguards start chasing each other around the pool deck, at one point running very close to where Sabrina and Trish were sitting. One of the lifeguards finally jumps into the water to get away, almost landing on a small girl trying to get to the ladder. Sabrina gets up to speak to the lifeguards, and they got very mouthy with her. After some words were exchanged, we decided it was time to get out of there, if that's how the lifeguards were going to behave.
As we were heading out, there were several more lifeguards outside the pool entrance. As I get closer to them, I realize that they're smoking something out of a houka. HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, they're in their town of Vestal lifeguard uniforms, and there they are in plain sight of anyone walking or driving by. I didn't smell pot, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't some other type of drug along with the "flavored tobacco" they told us was in there. I walked back into the entrance, and asked the guy at the desk what was going on with the group outside. He wasn't sure, so I said that they were smoking something out of a houka/bong type thing, and he might want to go out there and tell them to cut it out ... there had already been an angry parent that had a problem with the lifeguards inside the pool and this would just make matters worse. He goes and tells them to put it away. While this was happening, Sabrina comes out, sees what's going on, and asks the kids "what is that, and what's in it?" They tell her it's flavored tobacco and it's "legal", to which she replies "I do NOT believe what I'm seeing here tonight". In the meantime I've wandered back into the pool, and was talking to another lifeguard that had actually been behaving himself. Hopefully he won't get in any trouble.
We get into the van and are getting ready to leave, and Molly pipes up "those lifeguards were doing drugs, weren't they Mom"? she then tells me that one of the smokers was her teacher for lessons. Fucking marvelous. She then says she's "surprised he's a druggie, since he's a good teacher and seemed like a nice guy."
So what do I do? I'm definately making a call to the Rec Department on Thursday morning to report the incident. I have to think about the lesson situation - I don't want that kid around Molly, but it's not fair to pull her out of lessons. I may speak with the lessons director and ask that Molly be put with the other instructor the rest of the session. I have a couple days to think on it. The horseplay was wrong, and could have been a disaster, but smoking ANYTHING in front of children when you still have your lifeguard uniform on is just unacceptable to me as a parent.
We (as in my neighbors next door, and down the street) decided we wanted to take the kids to the town pool for some swimming this evening. I had Molly, my next door neighbor Sabrina had her two daughters (ages 9&8) as well as the visiting granddaughter of another neighbor across the street (age 8), and our other neighbor Trish had her daughter (age 4). So we loaded up two vans and took off.
We had about an hour of nice if chilly swimming. As the evening wore on, several of the lifeguards were getting a little rowdy. Dumping buckets of water on each other, general horseplay, nothing serious. I had Molly and two of the other girls with me in the shallow end playing catch. The other two adults and the other kids were sitting on the deck warming up. Suddenly two of the lifeguards start chasing each other around the pool deck, at one point running very close to where Sabrina and Trish were sitting. One of the lifeguards finally jumps into the water to get away, almost landing on a small girl trying to get to the ladder. Sabrina gets up to speak to the lifeguards, and they got very mouthy with her. After some words were exchanged, we decided it was time to get out of there, if that's how the lifeguards were going to behave.
As we were heading out, there were several more lifeguards outside the pool entrance. As I get closer to them, I realize that they're smoking something out of a houka. HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, they're in their town of Vestal lifeguard uniforms, and there they are in plain sight of anyone walking or driving by. I didn't smell pot, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't some other type of drug along with the "flavored tobacco" they told us was in there. I walked back into the entrance, and asked the guy at the desk what was going on with the group outside. He wasn't sure, so I said that they were smoking something out of a houka/bong type thing, and he might want to go out there and tell them to cut it out ... there had already been an angry parent that had a problem with the lifeguards inside the pool and this would just make matters worse. He goes and tells them to put it away. While this was happening, Sabrina comes out, sees what's going on, and asks the kids "what is that, and what's in it?" They tell her it's flavored tobacco and it's "legal", to which she replies "I do NOT believe what I'm seeing here tonight". In the meantime I've wandered back into the pool, and was talking to another lifeguard that had actually been behaving himself. Hopefully he won't get in any trouble.
We get into the van and are getting ready to leave, and Molly pipes up "those lifeguards were doing drugs, weren't they Mom"? she then tells me that one of the smokers was her teacher for lessons. Fucking marvelous. She then says she's "surprised he's a druggie, since he's a good teacher and seemed like a nice guy."
So what do I do? I'm definately making a call to the Rec Department on Thursday morning to report the incident. I have to think about the lesson situation - I don't want that kid around Molly, but it's not fair to pull her out of lessons. I may speak with the lessons director and ask that Molly be put with the other instructor the rest of the session. I have a couple days to think on it. The horseplay was wrong, and could have been a disaster, but smoking ANYTHING in front of children when you still have your lifeguard uniform on is just unacceptable to me as a parent.