4-Year-Old Boy Izzy Scott Drowns During His Second Swim Lesson

Georgia Boy Israel ‘Izzy’ Scott Drowned During His Second Swim Lesson After Instructor Told His Parents They Can’t Wait To Watch Lesson

A family in Georgia wants answers after a 4-year-old boy died during a swim lesson. Israel “Izzy” Scott was an exuberant kid who loved the Black Panther superhero, dinosaurs and playing with his siblings, ages 11, 3 and 16, according to his parents, Dori and Walt Scott.

Izzy was excited (and nervous) for his very first swim lesson. His mom Dori said they chose a reputable instructor named Lexie TenHuisen, the operator of “Swim With Lexie,” who had taught his big sister two years ago.

On June 13, Dori Scott said she drove her son to his first lesson, a group class at a pool in Hephzibah, Georgia, close to their home. When she arrived, Dori said she was told that parents couldn’t stay to watch the lesson, to avoid distracting the children.

“I understood because I am a hair stylist and know that children can act differently when their parents are around,” Dori Scott told TODAY Parents. “But I didn’t want to leave my baby.” Still, she waited in the car until the lesson was over.

 

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“What if I drown?” Izzy asked, his mom later told sheriff’s deputies, and she assured him that wouldn’t happen.

But as Dori Scott sat in her car during the second swim lesson she said a parent knocked frantically on her window. “She said, ‘Come check on your baby,'” she told TODAY Parents. “I immediately lost it because I saw it in her eyes.”

TenHuisen, who has 49 years experience teaching swimming, jumped in the pool to save Izzy, the sheriff’s report says. She and another parent, a registered nurse who was waiting for her child’s swim lesson to start, started CPR until help arrived, the official report says.

“We don’t have a concrete narrative of what happened,” civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing the Scott family.

The family has not filed a lawsuit in Izzy’s death but Merritt says they are in the “fact-finding phase” and will “make a determination for the family.”The family said they have not gotten an explanation from TenHuisen — only a Venmo refund for the class, which Dori Scott called “a slap in the face.” A condolence card from TenHuisen came two weeks later, the Scotts said. “It wasn’t an apology.