Family: Child's Near-Drowning Caused By Negligence

The mother and grandmother of 3-year-old Naseir Janas Ponders - the child who nearly lost his life July 18 at the Otter Creek Water Park in Greenville - are grateful their little one is still alive. 

But they're also still waiting for answers as to how he nearly drowned.

Ponders was found floating face down in the water and had to be resuscitated after spending at least five minutes in the water, according to his grandmother, Tina Sitton.

He was found not by a lifeguard, who witnesses say was as close as 20 feet away, but by Russell Beaver, who was with another group of children. 

Sitton and the boy's mother, Teara Whiteside, said they were told that Russell and Sarah Beaver had essentially been watching over Ponders for roughly 45 minutes themselves without any help from his official guardians - the teachers of the YMCA's Judson Community Center.
Ponders was on a field trip with the community center at the time of the incident.

Sitton called the family who pulled Ponders from the water "guardian angels." 

"We know that Russ - the Beavers, were supervising Janas - was not part of the Y staff," Sitton said.  

"When we asked the 'Y' staff what happened, the only thing [his teacher] could tell me was, she was rounding the kids up and Janas took off running," she added. "My question was, 'What did you do?'"

Marilyn Matheus, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Social Services, said that in a child-care scenario involving water, a 3-to-1 child-to-teacher ratio is required. 

Meanwhile, Ponders' family said it was their understanding that two Judson Community Center supervisors were present at Otter Creek on July 18, watching over at least 11 children of mixed ages. 

"If you've got to have a wristband to get not the slide, my God, you've got to have on a lifejacket to get inside the water park," Sitton said.

Ponders was not wearing a personal flotation device.

Otter Creek Water Park, run by the Greenville County Recreation District, does not require swim tests or lifejackets for park users, leaving personal safety up to the supervisors while a staff of lifeguards helps watch over the entire facility.  

Ponders was discharged from Greenville Memorial Hospital on Sunday, after a week of being weened off of a ventilator. 

"The Department of Social Services is aware of, and saddened by, the tragedy at the water park and has launched an investigation," Matheus said. "Child Care Licensing and Out of Home Abuse and Neglect Units are looking into the matter and will immediately take appropriate action to keep children safe."

Whiteside and Sitton said they've received no answers from Otter Creek Water Park or the Judson Community Center about how Ponders nearly drowned. E

ven if answers do come, their trust ha been broken. Whiteside has pulled Whiteside from the daycare at the community center. 

"I think it will be a while before I go to the 'Y' again," Whiteside said. 

Whiteside was at work when she received the call informing her of the incident, but said she had no idea her son was fighting for his life.  

"We seen him come in on the stretcher, and that's how we knew it was serious," Whiteside said. 

And while they're grateful that little Janas has survived, they're still saying his near-death experience was the result of negligence. 

"Accidents happen. This was not an accident. It may have been an accident that he got knocked into the pool, but it was negligence that nobody was supervising him," Sitton said.