US / Louisiana Half of US Kids Can't Swim Drowning tragedy highlights our poor water skills By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff Posted Aug 5, 2010 3:27 PM CDT Copied Family members react as Shreveport Fire Department and Caddo Sheriff's deputies scour the beach at Charles and Marie Hamel Memorial Park in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/The Shreveport Times, Douglas Collier) The tragic drowning of 6 teens in Louisiana happened because the victims and a handful of bystanders all lacked the ability to swim. They're not alone: a full 37% of adult Americans told a CDC study that they couldn't swim the standard lap of 24 yards. A separate University of Memphis study found that about half of American children can't make it out of the shallow end, Slate reports. The teens in Louisiana were African-American, the demographic the Memphis study found to have the fewest strong swimmers (31%). Economic status also plays a role: a child's ability to swim correlates with the income of his parents—only 29% of skilled swimmers come from families that make less than $49,999 a year. (More Louisiana stories.) Report an error