Alaina Dildine loved so many things. Sloths, flamingoes, Stitch, band, Marvel movies.
Her parents, Kyle and Victoria Dildine, say she lit up every room she walked into. She was persistent. She loved learning. She wanted to make everyone she met feel important. She was a typical kid and teenager, they said.
“She loved to make people feel important,” Victoria Dildine said. “A lot of times her teachers would tell us that she would pick that kid who didn’t have a partner, or she would pick that kid who really was struggling in class, and she would you know, she would she would help them she would befriend them.”
Alaina, at the age of 15, died on May 16 after she drowned in the Whiteland Community High School pool during swim class. She was underwater for 52 minutes before she was pulled out of the pool. The Johnson County Coroner’s Office ruled her death an accident on May 30, and said she died from drowning after having a seizure.
Three months later, Kyle and Victoria Dildine continue to mourn their daughter, and they have been calling for changes to be made to Clark-Pleasant’s pool protocols. They believe their daughter’s death was a preventable tragedy.
“When any parent, when they send their kid to somewhere, especially at school, you’d never think that this would happen — period,” Kyle Dildine said.
“Alaina tried so hard to go out of her way for other people,” Victoria Dildine said. “And the moment when she needed somebody to watch out for her, nobody was there and nobody did that for her.”
Asking for change
They were shocked and angry to learn Clark-Pleasant lacked a protocol for staff to follow when students are swimming in the pool for class. There were no procedures for taking attendance after class or keeping headcounts while students were in the water. The only internal policy the school produced when asked was a one-page sheet of general pool rules, such as “no running” or “no horseplay.”
“For the one place that is literally the most dangerous in the school … there were no policies, no procedures, no expectations,” Victoria Dildine said.
There was a lifeguard and a physical education teacher on the pool deck at the time Alaina drowned. The lifeguard was terminated in June, and the teacher was placed on paid administrative leave on May 17, and is still employed by the school system.
Alaina had epilepsy, a brain disorder that causes recurring seizures. All of Alaina’s teachers, including the PE teacher, were aware that she had epilepsy, Kyle and Victoria Dildine said. She often advocated for herself and her needs. They said Alaina had not had a problem with seizures while swimming in a pool prior to May 16.
“She never had that problem in the pool. But, you know, there’s so many things that could have happened and didn’t,” Kyle Dildine said.
The Dildines and other parents have been demanding change at Clark-Pleasant to prevent another tragedy.
“It’s not just for Alaina because Alaina had epilepsy. You think about the fact that there was absolutely no policy whatsoever, that could have been any child,” Victoria Dildine said.
In the aftermath of their daughter’s death, the Dildine say they have felt no sense of accountability or support from Clark-Pleasant.
“Clark-Peasant has not at all taken any responsibility. They have offered no accountability. They have not even as much as given any, any heartfelt condolences,” Victoria Dildine said.
Clark-Pleasant officials say they have been working on a new policy for pool safety. Some proposals for that were presented at the school board work session last week. Some of those included a buddy system for students in the water, headcounts before and after class and doubling the number of adults supervising the pool. There also would be a requirement for students with medical conditions such as epilepsy or narcolepsy to wear a flotation device unless a parent or guardian signs a release document.
The Dildines do not think those changes are enough, they said. They said these new proposals seem to put more responsibility on the students, rather than more protocols for the staff watching the pool.
One of the new rules would require students to leave their towels and personal items on the pool deck during class. Alaina had left her towel, flip flops and water bottle on the pool deck the day she drowned.
“They were still there when we were holding our girl on the side of the pool,” Kyle Dildine said. “Not a thought in the world from anyone there, wondering, why are those still there?”
A security camera in the school pool captured the incident, and the footage was reviewed during the police investigation. The Dildines have not seen that footage, though Kyle Dildine said he feels he may have to one day.
“I know that it’s going to show the last moments of my daughter’s life,” Kyle Dildine said. “I have to see it … and I’m going to have to understand how it happened and the way it happened.”
Remembering Alaina
What the Dildines want people to remember most about Alaina is her love of making everyone feel special. She touched the lives of so many people around her, they said. She wanted to be President of the United States one day. At her second-grade career fair, she made a sign saying someday, she wanted to be president.
“She just she wanted to learn and she wanted to teach other people,” Victoria Dildine said. “She wanted to make a difference. She wanted to make a difference in the world.”
Alaina had epilepsy, and she was an advocate for herself and spreading awareness about the disorder. But she didn’t let that define her, Victoria Dildine said.
“That wasn’t who Alaina was, and that was important. Alaina, she wanted to do everything that that everybody else could do, and she could do everything that everyone else could do,” she said.
Alaina loved playing games. She spent a lot of time in the game room at the Ronald McDonald House. She loved solving word searches and Sudoku puzzles. Kyle Dildine wants to try to have an arcade game made in her honor, and wrap it with signatures from people who signed her ribbon.
The Dildines’ main focus now is mourning Alaina, and supporting their youngest daughter as well.
“You know, we’re not going to have a 16th birthday for her … marriage, kids. She’s not going to have any of that. She was gone so fast. And she was so perfect,” Kyle Dildine said.
They are thankful for the overwhelming community support after Alaina’s death. People from the Whiteland community and all over have reached out to them, they said. The line at Alaina’s funeral visitation was over three and a half hours long.
“Nobody plans to bury their child. You don’t plan to do that at all,” Victoria Dildine said.
They hope that support doesn’t slow down, and they ask that people continue asking questions of Clark-Pleasant and advocating for changes to the pool policies. They also hope other school districts in Johnson County and around the country review their policies.
“I want us to still get fired up and make sure that this never ever, ever happens again,” Kyle Dildine said.
Victoria Dildine attends every Clark-Pleasant School Board meeting now. She sits in the front row, holding a photo of Alaina, as a constant reminder to the board members, she said.
“Nobody should forget Alaina,” she said. “And because if nothing else, then they need to see what they’re sitting up there for.”
HOW TO HELP
The Dildine family asks those who wish to honor Alaina Dildine’s memory donate a memorial contribution to the Ronald McDonald House.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati, 341 Erkenbrecher Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, or online at www.rmhcincinnati.org
