‘Sense of relief’: Scott family shares after DA’s announcement

WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - District attorney Jared Williams says the swimming instructor teaching the lesson where Izzy Scott died, now has a warrant out for her arrest.

It’s been six months since the 4-year-old drowned and the first time we are hearing of any criminal charges. We’ve been asking for updates every month from the Scott family to see where this case stands.

The family says, finally, they have a decision from the district attorney that’s allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

Swim instructor, Lexi Tenhuisen, is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, which is a misdemeanor. Scott’s family says this is just one step in the right direction.

Dori and Walter Scott, the child’s mother and father, “I was overjoyed and I was thankful that my son is finally getting some kind of justice.”

On June 14., Scott drowned on his second day of swim lessons at a home in Burke County.

“It’s an immediately heart-wrenching situation once it all happened,” Scott’s parents say. Back in July, we talked with the Scotts about what happened that summer day.

According to the family’s attorney, he drowned near the end of the swim lesson, about 10 minutes before his lesson was over and it transitioned to a new class. There were 10 kids, including Scott in his group.

The attorney says it’s the habit of the instructor to have the kids swim the length of the pool. The last time the instructor reported working with him was just before the students swam the length of the pool when he was picking up rings at the bottom of the pool.

Tenhuisen usually waited in the deep end of the pool and let all the swimmers her, that way she would be the last one to get out, Merritt said.

The Scotts were told that as other families came in, the instructor was speaking with them when someone noticed he was still in the pool and that he was underwater in the deep end.

Merritt said there was an approximately 10-minute gap between when she last saw Scott and the time he was discovered drowning in the pool.

According to authorities, they don’t know what happened in that gap.

Our I-team also combed a 22-page report of evidence from investigators. In it, a child in the class references “a child coughing” who “got onto the concrete once out of the pool.

The family told us back in July they Scott telling her he swallowed a lot of water the first day. She believes that explains why Scott, who loved the water, was afraid to go back on the second day.

According to the report, Scott’s mother told investigators he didn’t want to go to lessons that morning, even asking her, “what if I drown?”

Documents show at least five other people told deputies the swim teacher had to ask other adults to help her get him out of the water. Weeks later, on July 6., the sheriff’s office decided not to press criminal charges against Tenhuisen.

In a letter, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office wrote, “While there may be some form of negligence, it was determined the case lacks sufficient evidence to prove criminal negligence. As a result, we are unable to move forward with this case.”

The sheriff’s office ed the case file to the district attorney Williams, who then ed the case to the GBI.

The case was returned to the district attorney’s office for nearly two months and it’s now been in Williams’ hands for almost two months before this decision came down today.

“He had a whole life ahead of him and to see all this time go by and nothing is done, and no one is able, no apology, nothing for this long and just to get that little sense of relief is just emotional. It was a breath of fresh air because I feel like I’m drowning every day, but it was like I could lift my head and breathe a little bit,” Scott’s mother says.

They feel like this is a step towards justice and ability. The next step is ing legislation for more regulations for private swim lessons in honor of their son.

“Hopefully we can save hundreds of other kids’ lives and just bring awareness,” Scott’s parents say.

Throughout this case, we found that there are few if any regulations for private citizens who teach swim lessons for money.

Georgia does not require someone to have any certifications to teach swim lessons. We do know the instructor in this case was licensed, according to reports.

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