Swim School I Work For Wants Me To Physically Force Reluctant Students To Enter The Water. Concerned About Liability And Child Safety.

Location: Minnesota, USA

I’ve been working as a swim instructor since 2022 and recently started working with a new organization last winter. Things went well in the beginning, but recently the supervisors and managers have been promoting dealing with children who are reluctant to swim or afraid of the water in a way I completely disagree with. They say that if a child is refusing to swim or too anxious to enter the water, the instructors should physically move them by grabbing them off the side of the pool and putting them in the water. This is supposed to be done even when kids say no. Recently I dealt with a situation where a young child was screaming and yelling in protest because she was so scared of being in the pool. My supervisor told me I had to ignore her wishes and carry her into the pool. This is supposed to be the protocol for dealing with refusal, whether it is caused by anxiety or anything else.

I’m concerned about being held liable if anything ever happened to a child while taking this approach. For example, I worry that a child could hyperventilate if they were having a panic attack in the water, or that their arms or legs could be bruised if they tried to pull away from the instructor holding them, or that they could slip and fall on the pool deck while running away from me or another instructor. I also worry about the consent side of things; I don’t feel like I should be touching a child that is explicitly asking me not to, even if it’s to “help them overcome their fear.”

I know very little about legal matters, so I am just wondering if there is any legal risk for me personally as an instructor or to my organization created by doing this. I’m uncomfortable following these requests from my supervisor and I’m not sure what to do, but I don’t want to be putting myself or my students at risk.

Thanks in advance for any advice.