Gary Lifeguard Dismissed For Lying Down On The Job
CHICAGO (CBS) -- On a hot summer day like today one might want to cool off in Lake Michigan, with the assurance that lifeguards have your back.
That did not appear to be the case in a local video that's hit You Tube.
The video shows a lifeguard lying on a towel in the sand next to a lifeguard perch at Marquette Park Beach in Gary.
The man taking the video tells the young woman she is not ready to save a life.
He says, "I used to be a lifeguard for five years. I just want to know why you're laying down on the job?"
Although it's hard to hear her voice on the video, the lifeguard identifies herself as Jasmine and says she's lying down to be in the shade.
"Tell me you can see everybody in this water from being down here, everybody in the water from being down here. You can see everybody, right? Every single person, right? .. You cannot see everybody," the man tells the lifeguard.
The man making the nearly three minute video says to the lifeguard, "You know you're posing a hazard to everybody else out here? So, what can we do to correct that?"
During all but the last few seconds, the lifeguard continues reclining on the towel and admits that the young girl next to her is her daughter.
Lori Peterson-Latham, the superintendent of the Gary Department of Parks tells Newsradio in an email that she was made aware of the video yesterday and that the lifeguard has been fired.
