JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Drowning doesn’t discriminate, but Black children are three times more likely to drown than white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s what happened to Arkeisha Reese’s 5-year-old son Kareem Green.
Kareem’s summer camp went on a field trip when Reese got a phone call that changed her life forever.
Reese remembers her son as a child full of energy.
“Kareem loved dinosaurs. He was playful, happy. His smile was everything,” Reese said.
But 17 years ago, Reese experienced her worst nightmare.
She said she got a phone call from Kareem’s summer camp telling her to go to the hospital.
“He wasn’t moving, so at that moment, I knew something was wrong,” she said. “You know your child. So that’s not him.”
Kareem drowned while on a field trip.
“I don’t care what happened. I feel supervising him should have been done. Something went wrong,” Reese said. “I just miss him.”
Kareem didn’t know how to swim. At the time, Reese didn’t either.
She said that inability was passed down from her mother.
“She didn’t take us to swimming lessons,” Reese said. “She didn’t take us much to the beach. So that’s what happened to us. My sons, they didn’t know how to swim.”
It’s a common experience for Black families nationwide.
According to USA Swimming, 64% of Black children don’t know how to swim.
“You start to see a disparity that has everything to do with segregation,” State Rep. Kevin Chambliss said.
Chambliss said past discrimination still affects Black communities when it comes to the water.
“From a cultural standpoint, we learned a lot of things, but water recreation began to not necessarily be a cultural norm in Black communities because Black communities weren’t given access to water recreation that were in the cities that we were living in,” he said.
News4JAX is looking into how racism and a history of segregation surrounding swimming pools create barriers that still exist today and play a part in the high drowning rates among the Black community and in the inability of many in the community to swim, leading to tragedies like the stories of Kareem and Jacksonville news reporter Hope Bartlett.
RELATED: Mother of reporter who drowned on the job in 1998 also didn’t know how to swim
Chambliss said making swim lessons free is one way to help prevent drowning.
“We have to take the cost away. Because I think by having a cost associated with that, then you’re going to have an economic gap between different communities on who knows how to swim and who doesn’t,” Chambliss said.
Reese is doing just that through the Team Kareem Memorial Foundation.
She offers free swim lessons and CPR classes statewide.
“‘I stand behind S.E.E., which is supervising, education and environment. Supervise first. Educate yourself, whether it be CPR, swimming lessons, lifeguard training,” she said.
She’s also working with Chambliss on a water safety bill.
It would require childcare facilities to have written permission from parents for water-related activities and life jackets for children who can’t swim.
“If they were to ask me those questions, or if they would have had life jackets on the premises, Kareem would have been here,” Reese said.
Reese is hoping the changes will end the dangerous cycle.
She also had a message for families who have not made learning to swim a priority.
“You could stop it. Right now, you don’t have to do what your mom or your grandma did,” she said. “You could start with your kids. Let’s stop this generational curse. Please, you’re hearing it from me, a mother who has lost her child. Make it a priority. Talk about swimming.”
Chambliss said the water safety bill will be the first bill he files when the Legislature is back in session.
Reese plans to travel frequently to Tallahassee to hopefully see the bill become law.
If you want to learn more about the Team Kareem Memorial Foundation, click here.