In May 2023, a three-year-old boy drowned at Camp Cohen Water Park in El Paso, Texas. At the time, El Paso law enforcement indicted the child’s mother, Jessica Weaver, on charges of knowingly or intentionally causing bodily injury to her child. However, a new letter from Weaver’s attorney has revealed the negligence of Camp Cohen lifeguards, calling the facility’s operations from May 2023 into question.
According to KFox14, lifeguards “prioritized selling ‘churros’ over supervising swimmers,” and testimony revealed the water park was “too crowded, too loud, and too chaotic, with many lifeguards and upper management working in the kitchen, frying churros, refilling sour cream or serving drinks, instead of watching over lifeguards and/or park attendees.”
Weaver’s attorney obtained testimonies from former lifeguards, the former director of waterpark operations and the site manager, who were all present the day the child drowned.
The lifeguard who ultimately noticed the drowned child told the attorney that he “didn't expect to be watching over a pool that was reportedly ‘crowded and hectic and chaotic’ on his first day.” Others reported that the facility was so loud that radios and whistles could not be heard.
Upon indicting Weaver, officials pointed out that she should have given her son a life jacket. However, her attorney has discovered that, “Weaver was not allowed to bring in an outside life jacket and that Camp Cohen was short on life jackets.” This evidence further points the blame to Camp Cohen for the lack of emergency preparedness.
Testimony between Weaver’s attorney and the former water park director was released to KFox14. In that conversation, the attorney asked, “would you agree with me that supervising lifeguards is more important than—doing things like frying churros, true?” The former director did not immediately agree, instead, they said, “So the operation entails various responsibilities.”
The attorney closed the letter by stating that the pool where the child drowned was zoned for seven lifeguards to be on duty, but Camp Cohen did not have seven lifeguards stationed there.
