More than 2 dozen lifeguard certifications revoked in Montgomery County due to improper training
BETHESDA, Md. - Have you ever given much thought to how well-trained the lifeguards are at the swimming pools you and your family visit? After new details about some Montgomery County trainers cutting corners in their courses, you might want to.
All lifeguards are supposed to be trained and certified before they take the stand and scan the water they're assigned to patrol, be it at the pool or the beach. But FOX 5 has learned that wasn't the case for some lifeguards in Montgomery County.
The American Red Cross has confirmed that 25 teenage lifeguards certified this spring in Bethesda have had those certifications revoked, costing them — at least for now — their summer jobs.
The reason cited by the Red Cross was inadequate training as determined by the organization’s quality assurance teams.
As first reported in the Washington Post, the lifeguard training was held at an indoor pool at the Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda back on April 6.
The Red Cross says three independent contractors — lifeguard instructors — certified by the Red Cross apparently cut corners. According to the Washington Post skimping on the amount and quality of training needed for those teenagers to be properly certified.
"I've heard a couple of stories of instructors just signing them off and letting them go and I think it's ridiculous because they do need the proper training because it is people's lives at risk that we're doing this job for," said Jackson Young, a certified lifeguard.
Young is the pool manager here at Old Georgetown Club in Bethesda. He says he and his lifeguards are trained by the company that runs this and more than a dozen other private pools in Montgomery County.
"It's a two-day course and you go there Saturday and Sunday and you just go over all the stuff and certifications for those two days," Jackson said. "And we just started doing in-service trainings, which is just random trainings throughout the year. Practicing saves again and doing all the CPR stuff again."
Montgomery County's Recreation Department says it employs 500 to 800 lifeguards each year for the seven outdoor pools and five indoor aquatics centers it operates. Division Chief Carmen Berrios Martinez says they do more than their best to ensure the certified lifeguards they hire are qualified to do the job.
"Most of our certification classes right it’s more than one individual and we are verifying that the training process is going according to the schedule. So that opportunity to change a course would not be possible," Berrios Martinez said. "I think that’s the importance of really making sure that we follow the process every single time and so Montgomery County Recreation really prides itself in keeping safety right as their number one priority and not cutting corners."
The Red Cross says it has revoked the certifications of two instructors responsible for that April class and they are requiring re-training for the third instructor before he or she can teach lifeguarding classes again.