Dallas ISD students get life-saving swim lessons from YMCA

The calendar says spring, but blink and it will be summer in North Texas. Summer break means pool time for many students.

"Ah, my favorite part is about splashing," second grader Jeremiah Aruho said.

Watch NBC 5 free wherever you are

WATCH HERE

Aruho is among 700 first and second-graders in 11 schools in Dallas ISD who are enrolled in a two-week water safety swim pilot program, a partnership between Dallas ISD and the YMCA.

"We know that swim lessons reduce the risk of drowning by 88%," YMCA Director of Safety Around Water Marioli Diaz said. "So this is why we want to give kids in our community the opportunity to do this, so we can prevent or eradicate drownings in our communities."

Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning with NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.

"I immediately thought of one of our students, who is now a first grader, who last year, prior to the end of the school year, suffered a near-drowning experience," Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary Principal Sandra Hernandez said. "Many of our students are low socio-economic status that don't have the opportunity to get personalized swimming lessons. It's 'go to the pool and just figure it out.' So I'm just very thankful, because this is a life-changing experience for many of our students."

Some of the students, like Aruho, have never been in a pool before the Dallas ISD/YMCA classes.

"He's the first in our family to enter a swimming pool," Aruho's dad, Brian Arinaitwe, said, who added that he did not know how to swim. "I think he will be the first to learn how to swim in my family, he will teach me. I'm so sure about it! He will teach me."