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Grieving family hopes to change laws surrounding home pools

02:21 PM CDT on Sunday, October 14, 2007

Naomi King / Houma Courier

HOUMA -- Hoping to save other families from the tragedy they experienced nearly a month ago, family and friends of a 2-year-old boy who drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool are on a quest to create a parish law requiring fences around pools.

Emily Schwarze / Houma Courier

Hayden Davenport’s mother Stephanie Thibodeaux (center) is overcome with emotion after grandmother Nancy Newsom’s address to the Terrebonne Parish Council Wednesday evening at the Government Tower. (EMILY SCHWARZE/STAFF)

Hayden Paul Davenport drowned Sept 19, after climbing into his aunt’s above-ground pool, next door to his grandmother’s home where he lived with his mother and father. Family said the boy was watching the family hang Halloween decorations in the backyard when he suddenly disappeared. The pool’s ladder is usually removed when it’s not in use, but it was left this time, they said.

"Child drowning is a silent death," said Nancy Newsom, Hayden’s grandmother. "There is no splashing, screaming or calling for help. It happens in a matter of seconds."

Hayden is the second toddler to drown in Terrebonne Parish in three years, family members told the Terrebonne Parish Council on Wednesday as they asked for the fence law. In response, council members unanimously voted to research laws passed by other parishes and towns.

On everyone’s chest were bright orange ribbons, Hayden’s favorite color because Halloween was his favorite holiday, said family members, looking straight ahead with tears in their eyes when the council made its vote.

"We were all very ecstatic, and overwhelmed," said Hayden’s 28-year-old mother, Stephanie Thibodeaux, after the vote. "It touched our hearts that they were so interested in it. They didn’t realize Terrebonne Parish didn’t have a law."

In addition to passing a parish law, the family wants to get a similar measure passed at the state level. Some parishes and towns have laws already, such as Lafayette, Shreveport, St. Bernard Parish and Jefferson Parish.

The family is also passing out flyers and information to raise awareness, including going to Wal-Mart to talk to people purchasing pools, Thibodeaux said. They’ve also set up a fund at South Louisiana Bank, and all donations will be used to support efforts to pass a swimming-pool law.

"It’s not about money or passing another law, it’s about protecting our children," Thibodeaux said. "It has to start somewhere."

Trying to pass a what she calls Hayden’s Law is keeping her sane, Newsom said, because the pain is so hard.

Newsom has found instances of infant drowning to be surprising. While car accidents are the leading cause of child death, the second is submersion deaths, Newsom said.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Newsom said, between 300 to 350 children drown in swimming pools every year. And at the time of these incidents, most of the victims were being supervised by one or both parents. And according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 77 percent of the victims were missing from sight for five minutes or less, Newsom said.

"We cannot be sure if a fence could have save our precious Hayden, but we can be sure it may have given him those five to 10 minutes to be saved," Newsom said. "While some say teaching a child to swim helps, my grandson, Hayden, was in a swimming program."

The law will be on the council’s next committee meeting agenda, Oct. 22.