Nobody Breaks The Pool Rules . . . Nobody : Kyle and Ben’s parents would handle risk management themselves. Not only is the boys’ safety their primary concern, so too is their happiness.

It was a another hot day in the Valley, so my buddies Pete, Kyle and Ben decided to go swimming.

Or at least Pete and Kyle wanted to go. Pete is the dad here, and the 5 1/2-year-old Kylemeister isn’t shy about expressing himself. They assumed that The Benster--he’ll turn 2 next month--would be happy splashing around with the big guys.

Mom, as it happened, was scheduled to work that Saturday. So it was just Dad and the boys, venturing out in 100-degree heat to indulge in the cool, soothing waters of the city pool at Woodland Hills Park.

It was there that the authorities caught up with these desperadoes, just when they were about to violate . . . The Pool Rules!

A teen-age lifeguard explained that every child under the age of 7 must be accompanied by an adult. Two kids, therefore, require two adults.

Don’t worry, Pete told him. We’ll stay in the shallow end. I’ll hold the little one and keep an eye on Kyle.

But the lifeguard wouldn’t budge. Nor would his supervisor.

Pete and the boys found a bit of shade, not that it helped much. Kyle, tears welling, asked a simple question: “Why can’t we go swimming?”

*

It’s a good question. Kyle’s disappointment echoes the feelings of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children over the years. The Pool Rules exist and are strictly enforced, I’m told, to (a) protect children from tragic accidents and (b) to protect the city from liability claims. Even so, Pete isn’t at all happy with regulations that imply he is a less than responsible parent.

The parents who send their kids to Mrs. B’s Swim School in Northridge must feel similarly insulted. For 30 years, B Burrell has been teaching children, from age 3 on, how to swim in her back-yard pool. But recently county Health Department gumshoes discovered that the angle of slope from the shallow to the deep end of Mrs. B’s pool violates county codes for pools used in instruction. They then shut down her operations. Rallying to her defense, parents say that they consider their kids quite safe and are complaining that the government is denying them Mrs. B’s service.

You might think there would be an easy solution to this. At least I did. Why not allow parents the option of signing a document waiving liability claims against the city, county and state? Such agreements, it seems, are rather commonplace in the private sector.

John Vowels chuckled at the naivete of this suggestion. As a regional aquatics director for the city Recreation and Parks Department, Vowels oversees operations at 15 city pools in the San Fernando Valley. His experience has also provided him with a sideline--as an expert witness for pool-safety standards in civil litigation.

The problem, as both Vowels and a spokesman for the city attorney’s office explained, is that such “hold harmless” clauses may have little meaning to a jury. Let’s say a case went to trial. A good attorney could persuade a jury that county authorities were reckless to knowingly allow parents to let their kids take lessons from Mrs. B in her substandard pool.

Vowels was pleased to learn that his lifeguards at Woodland Hills Park were so vigilant. If the rules are bent, if exceptions are made, that’s the time to worry about litigation.

But Vowels suggested that it would be wrong (or at least half-wrong) to interpret the pool predicament as a justification for more, and more vicious, lawyer jokes. Primarily, he said, The Pool Rules--which seem to date back as far as anyone remembers, and Vowels joined the department in 1962--are based on sound principles of water safety. As he put it: “Public swimming pools are not user-friendly for small children.”

The problem, Vowels said, is that adults often underestimate the danger that may lurk within a crowded pool. A parent who takes a break to read a magazine may not realize that his or her child has encountered difficulties. Flotation devices, such as inflatable rings or “water wings,” are also forbidden.

Moreover, relaxing the rules would make the pool that much more crowded, and therefore more difficult for lifeguards or parents to spot a child in trouble.

The aquatics director recognizes that the rules seem to penalize young families. Any couple who has three or more children under 7, as well as single parents with two or more kids, must recruit a friend or even hire a baby-sitter if they want to use a pool supported by their taxes.

The modern, two-career family is also penalized. By allowing one parent to take the kids out, it frees the other parent to attend to chores or go to work. Last Saturday, Kyle asked this question: “Mom, can we go swimming today? Or do you have to go to work?” Mom had to go to work.

As Vowels suggested, “risk management” is the issue here. But Kyle and Ben’s parents would gladly handle risk management themselves. Not only is the boys’ safety their primary concern, so too is their happiness.

At the paranoid extreme, we could reduce liability by filling in all the swimming pools and only worry about golfers drowning in water hazards. Then again, in a swimming pool, children are less likely to get hit by a car or, for that matter, stray gunfire. After all, Kyle likes to ride the trains at Griffith Park’s Travel Town, but even that attraction became, last October, a homicide scene.

Every good parent knows that “risk management” is an issue always and everywhere.

So to get around The Pool Rules, a resourceful parent might, say, give some homeless guy a buck just to hang out by the pool. Or if Pete joined the Y, he’d discover a quasi-public pool that doesn’t require a 1:1 ratio between adults and kids under 7. Or if he moved to Santa Clarita, he’d find community pools where the rules aren’t quite so strict. (But maybe Santa Clarita hasn’t been sued yet.)

Or maybe Mrs. B would open up her back-yard pool to the public. The county, worried about its shallow pockets, won’t allow her to run a swim school. But she is perfectly free to throw a big pool party.

Mrs. B could invite every kid in the neighborhood to jump in, the water’s great.

She just can’t teach them how to swim.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Readers may write Harris at The Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311.