After the most NYC drownings in 5 years, leaders and victim's family call for change

ROCKAWAY BEACH, Queens (PIX11) -- This past summer season, New York City had more drowning deaths than it's experienced since before the pandemic began, and the people who've drowned have mostly been people of color.

Those grim statistics are part of the reason why the parents of one of the drowning victims accepted the invitation of some New York City Council leaders to speak out at a rally on Friday. 

The event was set up to mourn the seven people who perished in New York City public waters this year and to highlight legislation that councilmembers say they'll introduce to boost aquatics in general and swimming lessons in particular for New York public school students. 

The need for those efforts was emphasized by someone who said that she knows it firsthand, tragically. Aminatu Noah lost her son, Elyjah Chandler, in a drowning incident in late June. 

"If you leave the issue alone," she said on Friday, "it won't get any better."

Her son Elyjah was 16 when he and a friend, Christian Perkins, entered Rockaway Beach waters in Jacob Riis Park when no lifeguard was on duty. They were inundated and drowned. 

At the ceremony and rally on Friday on the Rockaway boardwalk, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams led her fellow council members in reading the names of the seven who died, including one who remains unidentified. 

Speaker Adams said that she had nearly drowned when she was eight years old. At the time, she said she didn't know how to swim and vowed that there would be far fewer children without the means to learn to swim as possible. She said that there's a moral obligation for New York City lawmakers to ensure greater aquatics access.

"When one of three black students can't swim, while one in ten white students cannot." she said at the morning news conference, It's a matter of equity and justice." 

Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, who represents Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst, Queens, convened the rally. He pointed out that his district has no public pools and joined in, saying that the council intends to expand safe access to water for swimming.

"With a package of legislation," Krishnan said, "to mandate water safety education in our schools."

Many second graders citywide get basic swimming training through a partnership with the YMCA. The legislation would expand that. 

Aminata Noah, who was on hand with her husband, Elyjah's father, Lester Chandler, said that they favored the proposed legislation.

They also said it's been hard to live without their only child. Advocacy for aquatics education, they said, is a way to honor their fallen son. 

"We need more of these kids to learn swimming lessons," Noah, the victim's mother, said, "especially kids of color. We don't have as much of that. These issues need to be fixed."

Mary O'Donoghue is the senior aquatics director for the YMCA citywide. In an interview at the YMCA facility that serves the Rockaways, she spoke about the advantages of the Y's free or discounted swimming programs. These include citywide swimming lessons for New York second graders and free lifeguard training. 

She said expanding the former into other grades and ages would improve water safety for everyone. One result, said O'Donoghue, would be more expert swimmers and waterborne first responders. 

"The more people we can get learning how to swim," she said, "they will then have the swim ability to become future lifeguards."

The proposed legislation expanding water safety awareness had the support of about a dozen city council members who'd joined the rally. It would need a majority of the council to pass and support from Mayor Eric Adams. The mayor and many council members have generally issued statements endorsing water safety. 

Legislative actions in the weeks and months ahead will determine the fate of the proposed packet of aquatics education bills.