MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Almost a week after a 13-year-old boy drowned, hopping a fence to swim in a closed pool, the city said it did not have immediate plans to change city pools’ schedules.
Cedric Walton died last Sunday at the pool on South Orleans.
There was a surveillance camera at the pool, and a security business in place to monitor the camera’s live stream.
However, security never saw Walton in the pool because the pool’s WiFi was down and the live stream was not working.
City pools are closed Sundays and Mondays.
That did not stop Walton from hopping the fence Sunday.
WREG told Karen King, who was out and about with her son Friday, that many kids in Memphis do not have the opportunity to swim at their neighborhood pools on Sunday.
“I hate that, because Sunday’s kind of your family day, your family time, and yeah, that’s kind of a bummer,” King said.
The city’s aquatic centers’ web page was outdated Friday, only listing information from last year.
WREG asked the city why there have not been opportunities to beat the heat and hit the pool on Sundays.
A representative for the city responded by saying “…asking why pools are closed on Sundays is one of those historical questions that pre-dates the current mayor and the current parks director. Any answer would be speculative to some extent.”
“They need to change it,” said Memphis resident Erica McNabb.
When WREG asked why Mayor A C Wharton couldn’t change the days the pools were closed, the city did not have a specific answer.
The city said Saturdays are busy pool days and Mondays worked best for maintenance and repairs.
The city added that a security guard, who responded to the drowning Sunday, told the mayor the same group of kids reportedly hopped the fence Saturday too.
Therefore, the city was not convinced the issue was because of the day of the week.
The city confirmed AT&T was the company that was responsible for repairing WiFi when internet is lost at pools.
The city has not yet confirmed whether or not Delta Security contacted the city Saturday when the outage was noticed.
The security company previously told WREG it did contact the city Saturday.
