I am outraged about this story.
The Board of Education should be ashamed of itself. The young adults involved, and they are young adults, should have all been fired. Why should we treat them like little kids that didn't know better? Matt Demaline should have called the police and a police report should have been filed. Do these young adults catch a break because they work for the recreation department? Any other person would have been arrested and a report taken for the incident. This is the type of employees that we are calling lifeguards? Empty beer cans and you can't prove drinking was going on? Are we all supposed to be that naive? The mayor should demand that all these employees be fired. The mayor should demand that Matt Demaline be fired as he has proven that he's a very incompetent person. These employees have the responsibility of saving lives, lets not treat them like they are little kids. None had the common sense to leave the pool when they knew wrong was being done, Just outraged by the entire story. Email this story to all the parents you know, as you just may have an intoxicated lifeguard trying to save your kids life.

I think this was a balanced approach because the ages are 18 to 21. We all know that kids drink and these were young adults. The point of an age requirement for drinking is being responsible which is lacking when you are younger. If it was habitual that is different. If they were drinking while on the job that is also different. They were off-duty. The pool was closed. They were not driving and they were not responsible for "lifesaving" at this time (unless I am understanding the article wrong). I think they deserve the reprimand they got. We want them to learn from this not mar their future. It was bad judgment on their part which happens when you are younger and two people took responsibility for it and everyone else was disciplined. We were all young once and have made bad judgments I am sure. Just my two cents. I would not feel this way, however, if they were on duty when this happened. That would be a whole different can of worms.

I took lindarich's advice and emailed this story to as many adults as I could. They read the article, slammed the DELETE key, and responded back with insults. It was a very effective movement

This just continues to show that the Board of education and the Recreation Department have no control over themselves. I find it interesting that the "investigation" was turned over to the HR Dept. The head of HR is also the head of Rec if memory serves....the foxes are watching the hen house. I agree that we were all young and have made mistakes. The leadership of the school system and the rec dept should be the ones taking responsibility for failing to maintain control. This is a bit more than a youthful mistake. You CAN NOT DRINK ALCOHOL in public and in the public parks in Lakewood!

My question is this.. When exactly on the 4th did this happen? I was at Madison park all day on the 4th. From before the pool opened to shortly after it closed. It would have had to been after 7pm that day. Yes, the drinking, especially underage is wrong. However, if it wasn't for the resignations then there would be no proof of any wrong doing other than beer cans, which could have been left by anyone. The reprimand is enough punishment for youthful indiscretion, especially since it hasn't been proved, only speculated, that under age drinking occurred. Two people resigned, let that be the lesson for the rest. Make it a warning if they do it again, they are gone and other charges could be filed,

Gosh I miss living in Europe and the lack of hysterical and outraged people who are self righteous. While it was wrong according to the rules, to slam the Board is Education is a little too hysterical. I wish the pool was NOT under the control, only because of the hours of operations and some very silly rules.
The drinking age USED to be 18, which in fairness is logical. You can vote and die for your country, blah blah. It was wrong to do it in the park on public property, but other than that and no breathalyzers involved? Technically the only evidence was some beer on the premises. BTW that was a really hot day, my kid passes out due temps...heat can make you goofy too and I work in the medical field
We have turned into a disgusting nanny state, I net many here slamming this probably tried to do similar things when they were teens.

Why does the Board of Education run the pools and the rec dept.?

I agree with everyone EXCEPT lindarich. My gosh, I love this town, but some folks who live here are SO UPTIGHT and JUDGMENTAL. For example, I read the police blotter weekly and cant believe the reasons people call the police -- a bloody knife in the middle of the street which turned out not to be bloody? Really people? I think the police have better things to do and some of YOU need to pay more attention to your own lives rather than being a nuisance. Kids are always making mistakes. I think the punishment suited the crime. Cripe.

As dramatic sounding as lindarich sounds... I agree with the point she makes that the police should have handled the matter. If alcohol would have been found on 18-20 year olds in Lakewood park that day the police would have handled it, they would not have been handed over to the rec dept or school board. As a mother of two kids and a nanny of two little girls all of whom visit both Madison and Foster pools I am relieved to know they were not on duty while drinking alcohol, they just should have made better choices to take their underage drinking to another location or to not drink at all.

Think back.. did you not make a few mistakes while testing out adulthood as a teenager? They were off duty. I remember doing the exact same thing at a lake after hours with the gang that I worked with as a lifeguard. If we were caught we would have been yelled at and our parents would have been notified. End of story.

Here is a senario for you all. Only 2, 18 year olds were drinking, but they were the drivers for the others and as they left, they ran over a family of 5 waiting for the fireworks, killing and injuring all. It happens all the time, right? The law was broken, but we should not look the other way. Thank god no one was hurt. The parents should have been involved as well, not looking for lawyers, but reprimanding their children for their bad choice's. End of story.

The guards were OFF DUTY and relaxing after a very HOT DAY. Yes they did something Very Stupid but that is what people their ages do. Yes it was illegal but the overreaction by some people is such that it would lead you to believe that they themselves never made any stupid or questionable decisions early in their life. I would find this very hard to believe of most people who are now adults.

Discipline was given. A few of the 100 employees were involved. No lives were endangered and I hope it never happens again. To state that you should be careful that you don't have an intoxicated guard trying to save your child life is absurd. Once again some peoples reactions go way over the top from what the details say happened. You should be happy that these lifeguards (though questionable in some of their off duty behavior) would be willing to risk their life everyday they go up in the chairs to save children who either don't know how to properly swim and/or do not follow the safety rules that have been established. There is far more to be concerned about people who bring children or drop them off at the pool and then assume no responsibility for how they behave in the pool or on the deck. Take responsibility for your children. The guards are not your babysitter but are there to watch the lives of hundreds of people in the pool and provide them aid if there is an accident or the swimmers do something stupid that puts their lives and also possibly the lives of the guards themselves.

Lifegurds not an easy job and not one that will make you rich. I am proud of anyone of them I have dealt with over the years at this pool and thank them for the difficut job they do everyday.
Thank You

The fact is they broke the law. They were (with the exception of the manager) under the age of 21. I believe Mayor Summers is doing the right thing by looking into this further as he stated on Fox 8 tonight.

Nine "so-called" adults...Mayor caught with egg on his face, Education/Recreation bending rules for "select" few, Aquatics Director's reputation ruined and future uncertain. Oh and "Katie" voicing opinions on parenting skills! Alcohol not permitted at park, breaking/entering/trespassing...underage drinking. Lakewood makes news and looks foolish. Pretty sure the Education/Recreation's "employees handbook" states no drugs or alcohol. NEW precedence set, how will you handle your next employee; when the are arguing for a "two week suspension". Matt Demaline (?) "know his lifeguards". Well that trust has been broken. A good man, now fighting for his career, probably went to bat for all 9 of you for raises each year, helped get Winter and Spring break hours for all of you. Nice way to repay him! "Katie" you missed the point completely, this was not about your work conditions but about your fellow empoyees breaking the laws. How about the other innocent lifeguards, who now get to pick up these hours and here the snickering about them. Don't like the job, find another. As for this mess, sure bet there are still a lot of kids looking for "summer jobs"!

This is a total inaccurate account of what happened...it is crazy how biased and loaded the story (and some of the reactions) can be, and how it can skew the actual facts.

Question I have is, why did the Mayor Summers, not contact the police when HE found them after hours, on public property, drinking under age. Does the mayor not have any faith in police force, or was it because he may have known soom of the young adults? If the employees at his business would have been caught drinking, say on the loading dock, would his response have been the same? It seems to be the same old double standards that has haunted Lakewood for a long time. Well done Mr. Mayor,You proved my case.

Once again I will repeat Discipline was given. A few of the 100 employees were involved. No lives were endangered and I hope it never happens again. If they fired all involved for their indiscretions they would probably have to close the Madison Pool for the rest of the season.
Lifeguards do not just come off the street. They need to go thru extensive and strenuous training to even be considered for a position at either pool. This doesn't mean though that their mind still doesn't work like most teenagers.

We are now a week past the incident. Let those who are supervisors handle the situation as they see fit. Move on with your lives people. There are many more serious offenses happening everyday in Lakewood that thank goodness never come to you your attention.
If you knew all of them you would be packing tonite or tomorrow at the latest to leave this city you love.

Were all of not young once and made bad decisions? You are so quick to blame the young and naive. It's called growing up. You make bad choices. Stop embarrassing these children and let them grow up to be good people. This is wrong to be so harsh. No one died. Get off your horse and touch the ground we all walk on.

Hi everyone all of the parents who are acting like these employees are drinking on the job because they may have had some beer on a holiday need to get over themselves. the only reason any one noticed the get together at foster pool was because the fireworks were cancelled! Also, there are a lot of false statements in this story. A few people slip in to a comfortable place to watch the fireworks when lakewood park is at its peak of congestion on the fourth of July. They were literally there for an hour and didn't even go into the pool to cause a scene. If you had keys you would save yourself from the portable bathrooms too so don't act so high and mighty!

What are the false statements?

Jenni, your ignorance amazes me. These lifeguards were forced to resign. Initally, all 8 lifeguards and the manager were brought it, given their letter and told to sign it. They were not allowed to ask questions. When one guard did start to ask questions, the direction of human resources was called in, and she told the guard that he could either sign his letter or get arrested for trespassing. That isn't just the free-willed "resignation" that this story makes it out to be.

This story also left out the fact that there were 20 or so non-employees present, who were the ones who brought beer and were drinking. When Matt Demaline came, he let all of the non-employees go free, and kept the 7 or so guards that were present.

How does my inquiring about the real story make me ignorant? It seems to me that if your story is the true story, which it very well may be, then the Lakewood Patch has some explaining to do. The Lakewood Patch should also look into what really happened. I think you may have taken the tone on my question a bit different than I intended it to be. If you want the truth to be told, you might want to tell it in a way that doesn't offend the people seeking the truth.