Valley View Aquatics Center Implements Changes Following Death of 5-Year-Old

There have been many painful lessons learned in the year since the accidental drowning of 5-year-old Kaden Daniels last summer at the Valley View Aquatics Center in West Des Moines.

Parents have learned the depth of the kiddie pool (3 feet, 9 inches) from new posted signs. Kids have learned to keep track of how deep they’ve gone by staying on the shallower side of recently-painted colored lines indicating how deep they’ve gone.

And Kaden’s siblings have learned what it means to grieve.

Kaden’s mother, Ciji Cook, said Kaden’s younger brother, Evin, had a particularly hard time with the news.

“(Evin) asked me just the other day, ‘I miss Kaden.’ And he never says anything about him, not without coaxing,” Cook said. “...He asked me where he was again, and I said, ‘Well, he’s in heaven.’ And he said, ‘Well let’s go get in our car and drive to heaven, and then we’ll come back.’”

Evin turns 4 in September.

“You can see his little brain working to try to grasp that you can’t just go there and come back,” Cook said. “Oh man.”

Changes at the pool

Mark Brewick, recreation and facility supervisor for West Des Moines Parks and Recreation, said that the pool has taken several steps to prevent another tragedy. Staff have placed new signs that inform swimmers of the pool depth, and advise them to be within arm's reach of another person. An additional lifeguard patrols the deepest part of the pool, where Kaden drowned.

Before the pool opened this year, colored lines were painted at the bottom of the pool. A blue line runs at two feet deep, and a red line runs at three feet deep.

“I’ve heard parents tell their kids, ‘You know, if you’re not close to me, stay on this side of the blue line, or on this side of the red line,’” Brewick said.

Brewick said the lifeguards had to do 30 to 40 saves in the pool in 2011. This year, they’ve only had to do two.

“I think what happened is that parents are more aware of what happened last year,” Brewick said. “...I think a lot of parents are watching their kids a lot better.”

While the lifeguards and staff do not normally talk about Kaden’s death, Brewick said it has not been forgotten.

“Guards know it happened,” he said.

Memories

On each monthly anniversary of Kaden’s death, Cook brought her children out to the corner of Bridgewood and South 81st Street to lay flowers and stuffed animals next to a large picture of Kaden.

Last spring, she received notice that the city would be removing her items. Cook said she contacted the City of West Des Moines, and she agreed to remove the majority of the items when they offered to place a memorial bench outside of the center.

“It was kind of an exchange,” Cook said. “They didn’t want all this stuff out front, and I get it, it’s bad for business — but on the other hand, I don’t really care.”

Cook said she thought the bench would be a good way to memorialize Kaden and help her family through the grieving process.

“I know the bench will last longer, and it kind of keeps us from going out there every month,” Cook said. “And I try to teach my kids that this thing happened. We can cry about it, we can laugh about it, we can talk about it — but also, there’s a point where it’s unhealthy.”

Cook has not spoken to pool administration since shortly after Kaden’s death. She said the only thing that still bothers her about the accident is that Kaden floated in the water only feet from a lifeguard for five to seven minutes. She said she is glad that the center has enacted changes.

“I’m glad that they took the initiative and changed something. I know that none of them had any ill intent, or would ever want something like that to happen again,” Cook said. “But also, from a mother’s point of view, I’m very bitter.”

Cook still handles painful decisions following Kaden’s death, including how to decide what items of his she should keep, and which ones she should get rid of. She worries that she might look back in 20 years and wish she had kept an item she threw away.

She also faces the complex task of helping her remaining children continue through their grief.

“We can’t sit around every day and cry,” Cook said. “You know what I mean? You can’t do that. We need to go on with our lives at some point. And that’s what I try to show the kids.”

She gives the children different advice for grieving based on their ages. Her eldest son, Gavin, 11, was with Kaden at the center when he drowned.

“I tell the little ones, yeah, we’ll see him again some day, unfortunately it hurts real bad right now,” Cook said. “I tell Gavin that it will get better as time goes on. Time does heal things. That it’ll get better, and when it’s our turn, it’s our turn. And we’ll see him again.”