scary school situtation

When I arrived at Ben's school the Tuesday before our recent trip to Montana (post forthcoming,) I was informed about a very scary incident that had taken place.  It's extremely hard to write about without crying, even weeks later.  Ben had been taken out of the pool early for not staying on the wall and waiting his turn and the other kiddos were pulled out to be dressed before returning to their classroom.  Suddenly when a second count of the kiddos was done, Ben was missing!!  One teacher quickly ran outside to the adjacent outdoor pool and informed another teacher who knew him and the search was on.  He was missing for a couple of minutes before they found him six kids back in line on the ladder of the slide that goes into the pool.  On the day I asked to be shown exactly what had taken place, there was no one in line for the slide.  It was terrifying to see and to think about what might have happened if the pool had been less busy.  There were 3 lifeguards on duty, but with a busy pool and only seconds required to drown, the ending could have been far worse.  After the news sunk in and I talked with Ryan, we decided Ben definitely had to be taken out of the school.  Although lots of changes had been made only 24 hours later as well as many other potential safety risks having been identified, after seeing some things that were still taking place near the un-secure pool area, I wasn't at all comfortable sending him back.  Thankfully there were only 3 weeks left for Ben at the JCC before a short break and a new school in the fall.  I wish he had had more of an official ending to the year as he routinely says, "bye-bye school-y," right now, but with our trip to Montana to start the interruption, I hope he'll make the transition unscathed.
Fortunately, this very scary incident ended well for our family.  Ben's teachers agreed that all parents should be invited to walk through the area where swimming lessons are taking place.  Regular readers might remember these lessons at school were a surprise to us and in hindsight, I should have asked to tour the area where they were taking place, or at least observed a lesson or two.
I am happy our action will make the pool a safer place for the public at large and Ben's former preschool as well.  A door that had long been broken is finally being fixed and more attention is being given to some basic safety practices that had been ignored too long.  I'm thankful for all of us that an important lesson was learned this way, as it could have been so much worse for all involved.  Boy were Ryan and I in search of some extra Ben snuggles in the days after this!!