STURBRIDGE - When Derek Frechette took his two young boys to a town recreation program four summers ago, he made sure to bring their life jackets, which they had worn whenever they went swimming. But as he was leaving, he recalled, a staff member told him children were not allowed to swim in life jackets at the lake. It’s a claim the town disputes. But whatever the reason: 4-year-old Christian Frechette was not wearing a life jacket when he entered the water.
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The life jackets are banned because children can get over confident about their swimming abilities while wearing them-
Any new law should make a clear distinction between 4-yaar-olds who can't swim and eight-year-olds who can swim. With our national epidemic of obesity, we should not require cash-strapped towns to shut down a healthy and enjoyable form of exercise from kids who can handle it. Would we rather have them trespassing in abandoned quarries and the back lots of factories?