WARNING: Red Cross Loosens Lifeguard Recertification Requirements
GO HERE” MEOW MEOW FOUNDATION DEMANDS CHANGES TO COLOSSAL OVERSIGHT GAPS IN AMERICAN RED CROSS LIFEGUARD AND WATER SAFETY INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATION
GO HERE: AMERICAN RED CROSS OFFERS NO PROOF IT BANNED FACILITY THAT ISSUED FRAUDULENT LIFEGUARD CERTIFICATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO ROXIE FORBES PREVENTABLE DROWNING
Despite the fact that the American Red Cross (ARC) Scientific Advisory Council previously stated that lifeguard skill retention begins to decline after only a few months, the ARC is currently allowing lifeguards to forego critical field retraining and offering certification extensions for 120 days.
Less than half of lifeguard course participants can pass a skills test one year after training. Some lifeguards will now go two-and-a-half years without retesting. Yet, due to the pandemic, the ARC said lifeguards can take a brief—few minutes—online class to sustain their standing.
One ARC lifeguard said, “I wish there was some actual content. Maybe a brief video with important info from the lifeguarding course and an abridged version of the written exam. I would feel so much more confident with having staff whose certifications would otherwise be expired guarding if they had actually reviewed content."
While Meow Meow Foundation understands the training and testing limitations due to the coronavirus and social distancing requirements, any lapse in proper certification has the potential for catastrophic consequences.
We urge adults to pay far more attention to this development and ask your local public pool or other aquatics facility about the experience and certification status of its lifeguards. Many children and adults are eager to get back in the water since this pandemic swept across the nation. But do not allow eagerness to eclipse vigilance. Many fatal and near-fatal drownings have already occurred nationwide, including right here in California.
This is the Red Cross statement…
120 Day Certification Extension Course
The American Red Cross is closely monitoring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and focusing on the best ways to carry out our lifesaving mission. Because of this, we recently enacted a free, online-only 120 day certification extension course.
This enables a certificate holder to extend any base level certifications that expire between March 1st - June 30th that were acquired through instructor-led or blended learning classes taught in the community, full service, or AP/LTP channels.
Please note that this extension does not apply to Instructor certifications, instructor trainer certifications, online only classes or the recently released provisional certifications. To utilize this extension certificate, it must be presented with the expired certificate.
To learn more about this extension course, view our class listing below: