Acceptance of Female Lifeguards

In response to Kim Kowsky’s article (Times, Sept. 6) on the progress and acceptance of female lifeguards in the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors, we would like to make just a few comments.

As Ms. Kowsky pointed out, the ongoing effort being made to include more women in our organization isn’t perfect or complete, but it will be.

Yes, women and men must still share locker room facilities at some stations, a situation enjoyed by neither the men nor the women. In these tough fiscal times, however, ever diminishing resources must be channeled into our number one priority: saving lives. This is a mission in which, thanks in large part to our outstanding women guards, we are nearly always successful.

Yes, some bad choices were made for the women’s bathing suits. That’s why a woman is now in charge of purchasing our women’s suits. Granted our women would undoubtedly be wealthy if they received a dollar for every time a male patron asked if they would save them if drowning. But guess what? Our men would probably be just as wealthy from comments coming from our female patrons. And if Ms. Kowsky had asked, she would have found that the party invitation she found questionable was, in fact, hand-painted by one of our top female lifeguards who is also an artist.

We are not saying that there have not been problems in the past, nor that there might not be problems in the future, but we would just like to make it clear that we realize that our lifeguards, men and women, are the best in the world. Our stand mirrors that of Robin Bates, whom Ms. Kowsky quoted as saying, “To me a lifeguard is a lifeguard, as long as she saves my butt.” Absolutely right.

JIM BOULGARIDES

Los Angeles County

Lifeguard Assn.