A Northern Kentucky swim school is building a water-safety curriculum for children with autism after a 10-year-old autistic boy drowned in a Warren County retention pond Oct. 10.

Eric Moore, owner of Swim Life of Northern Kentucky in Florence, told WLWT he already has more than 400 children with autism on a waitlist for lessons. The boy's death pushed Moore to act.

"Put yourself in my shoes. This is what I do for a living. And I've trained autistic kids, so I've got success," Moore told WLWT. "So you see this on the news and it just a guy like me wants to know what he can do more."

Sources differ on how many children on the autism spectrum have drowned in Greater Cincinnati in the past two years. Local 12 reported the Oct. 10 death was the fifth such drowning in a retention pond. WLWT, reporting a week later, called it at least the sixth overall.

Deerfield Township firefighters helped Hamilton Township police search the Maineville neighborhood near Hammerwood Court after the boy, who was nonverbal, was reported missing at 2:08 p.m. He was found dead in the pond. Hamilton Township police said no criminal wrongdoing is suspected.

The Warren County Sheriff's Office had reported a similar tragedy in Deerfield Township in March, when a 4-year-old was found in a pond near his home in the Waters Edge subdivision and later pronounced dead at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

How the new program would work

Moore's planned curriculum would offer 30-minute one-on-one sessions, twice as long as the school's standard lessons. He plans to adapt lighting and music to each child's sensory needs, with parents providing feedback on what works.

The focus is water awareness and survival skills.

Moore said the program could launch within weeks. He first plans to meet with EmPath for Autism, an Ohio nonprofit that already partners with the Lakota YMCA to offer sensory-friendly swim lessons for children on the spectrum. He also plans to consult specialists at Cincinnati Children's.

Broader push for safety

Leslie Williams, president of EmPath for Autism and the mother of a child on the spectrum, told Local 12 that more than 50 percent of autistic children wander, and that wandering often leads to drowning. Her organization has distributed tracking tags to more than 3,000 families and petitioned for fencing around retention ponds.

Ohio's Joshua Alert Act, which took effect in September, created a statewide alert system to help police quickly locate missing children with autism or other developmental disabilities. The law is named for Joshua Al-Lateef Jr., a 6-year-old who was nonverbal and had autism. He was found dead in a pond after wandering from his West Chester home.

Hamilton Township Police Chief Quillan Short told Local 12 a Joshua Alert was not issued because officers reached the scene quickly.

More than 50 people gathered for a candlelight vigil Oct. 11 on Huntington Drive in the Regency Park neighborhood, steps from the pond, according to WLWT. A vigil organizer told WLWT the boy's family is from Uzbekistan, and a lullaby was played in Uzbek during the service.

Families seeking autism-friendly swim lessons can contact the Lakota YMCA or visit EmPath for Autism's water safety page for enrollment support and scholarship information.