Update on Roxie Forbes Drowning: Nobody in Charge

UPDATED 7:00PM Monday, September 28

NOTE: As previously stated, Meow Meow Foundation presents information like the following to help parents and caregivers navigate situations or services that afford potential risk.

A Los Angeles County first responder, whose name is withheld at this time, has cast doubt upon claims regarding who was in charge of the pool when Roxie Forbes drowned in June of 2019.

Roxie drowned at Summerkids, a recreational camp in Altadena due to grossly negligent acts ny the camp operating family, according to legal filings and evidence.

In sworn testimony, the first responder said “two lifeguards were assigned to the pool area” while two others who were “assigned to the day camp” went to the pool to assist with a bee sting. However, Summerkids employees and owners said in multiple communications that four, not two, counselors were already at the pool before the purported bee sting.

The first responder also disputed the claim by the employees and the owners who said it was only a 10-15 second gap between the time employees acknowledged Roxie alive and when they spotted Roxie floating on the surface effectively dead. He said he had never seen a drowning victim expel such a shocking amount of vomit, which indicated that she was submerged for a far greater period of time.

Roxie was in full cardiac arrest at the pool, never again breathed on her own and was removed from a ventilator the following day.

The camp owning family’s attorney Steve Madison said, “There were four certified lifeguards on duty that day. The sheriff ruled this was accidental.” Madison chose to represent the family despite being the Pasadena councilman for the district in which Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas reside. Forbes and Matyas are Roxie’s parents and Meow Meow Foundation principals.

Madison was wrong, however. None of the Summerkids employees at the pool when Roxie drowned were actual certified lifeguards. Summerkids camp owners were ultimately responsible for a fraudulent lifeguard certification scheme. They violated Red Cross training policies by providing a small fraction of instruction and, apparently, no testing. Madison has yet to comment on these developments.

Forbes, who is enrolled in a Harvard grad studies journalism program, investigated the camp and his daughter’s drowning. He shared his findings with the American Red Cross General Counsel which immediately issued a lifetime ban on Summerkids and their fake lifeguard instructor and revoked all certifications of the fake lifeguard-counselors.

Forbes is compiling shocking information not only about the four family members who operate Summerkids camp, but also the Red Cross itself, because Forbes has asserted deeply unsettling information about their internal training policies.

Forbes and Matyas said they implore parents and guardians to demand access to facilities where their children are involved in aquatics or other recreational activities which pose some level of risk. For yet undisclosed reasons, Summerkids disallowed parents on their grounds other than to drop off or pick up children.

The couple also said that such facilities must provide parents with copies of lifeguard certifications and aquatics procedures for review, including proper pool occupancy, emergency action plans, background checks and collaboration with the nearest first responders.