A swim instructor has been implicated in the drowning death of a child in Georgia. The police said she was giving lessons in a swimming pool in the backyard of a house.

The Burke County Sheriff’s Office initially decided against pressing charges concerning the incident that killed 4-year-old Israel “Izzy” Scott on June 14, 2022. But WJBF reports Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams directed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to issue an arrest warrant for Lexie Tenhuisen on a misdemeanor charge of involuntary manslaughter on December 30.

“Izzy Scott is not a case. He is not a file on a desk nor an article in the news. He is a child whose loss has broken the heart of our community. He is a symbol of how we should cherish our little ones and hold them tight,” Williams said in a statement.

Williams noted that the choice was made following months of careful research, examination and legal analysis. The Burke County Sheriff’s Office initially decided against pressing charges concerning the incident that killed 4-year-old Israel “Izzy” Scott on June 14, 2022.

Scott was one of 10 children who attended Tenhuisen’s lesson that day, People reports. Tenhuisen told police she had encouraged the kids to submerge their heads as much as possible as they took a lap around the pool’s shallow end.

As the lesson ended, Scott somehow found himself in the deep end, according to the police report. The rest of the students, and Tenhiusen, had exited the pool by then. She admitted to police that she had missed the boy’s disappearance until her granddaughter, who was about to use the pool vacuum, found his lifeless body at the bottom.

According to the police report, Tenhuisen jumped back into the pool to save him. She and a parent who was also a registered nurse performed CPR on the unconscious boy.

Dori Scott, the boy’s mother, was waiting outside in her car when she learned what had happened. Tenhuisen reportedly forbids parents from entering the swimming area while their children take lessons.

Tenhuisen told police she was unsure of the circumstances surrounding the boy’s drowning death.

“Tenhuisen claimed that the only thing that she can think of in her mind is that while the kids were swimming, he got a little too close to the drop-off, but she doesn’t remember that because there was just splashing, and she was watching them swim across,” according to the police report.

Israel’s father, Walter Scott, released a statement to WFXG praising the DA’s decision.

“Any time you leave a child under the care of someone else and you don’t get that child back the same way that you sent them off, then that person ultimately is responsible, to whatever extent it may be,” he said.

The Scott family has created an organization in honor of Israel to cope with their loss.

A GoFundMe campaign initiated by Naomi Jones aims to help raise awareness and change laws that protect children from instructor-led drownings and other forms of child neglect.

“Our goal is to help raise awareness and change laws that will protect children against instructor-led drownings and more. We are determined that our sweet IZZY’s death will not be in vain,” the GoFundMe page reads.

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