By now you’ve probably read about the 2-year-old dragged into the water and drowned by an alligator near Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida.
The 2-year-old boy – identified as Lane Graves, holidaying with his family from Nebraska – were enjoying ‘Movie Night’ at the resort when the reptile snatched him from the shallow waters of the manmade Seven Seas Lagoon at about 9:20pm local time.
The child’s father apparently rushed into the shallow water in a desperate attempt to wrestle the boy from the gator – believed to be between 1.2 and 2 metres long – but was unsuccessful, triggering a search and rescue mission that ended with the recovery of his body about 18 hours later.
It’s a tragic accident in anyone’s book, but there are still plenty of people judging Lane’s parents for allowing him near a lagoon flagged with ‘No Swimming’ signs in a state where an estimated 1.3 million wild gators roam free.
Now a mum-of-three has come out in their defence, posting a series of pics that show her own son Channing at the edge of the same lagoon at about 8:45pm, just 30 mins before Lane was taken; her point being that she had no reason to believe the water was dangerous, and that randos have no right to parent-shame his distraught mum and dad.
Jennifer Venditti Roye said Channing was running back and forth between the lagoon and the resort’s water slide all night, as were plenty of other kids.
“I can assure you alligators were not on my mind at all when Channing was in the water,” she writes in her post, which has since gone viral. “It’s a tiny beach, surrounded by pools, water slides, a restaurant and a fire pit. I can’t conceive that an alligator would be in such a busy, small space.”
“There is a time to be critical when parents are doing drugs and their children get hurt,” she added to PEOPLE. “But this is just not the time. It’s heartbreaking.”
All beaches and marinas at Disney World remain closed until further notice, and Disney has said it’s conducting a “swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols.”
That will include the number, placement and wording of signs and warnings in the area; while ‘No Swimming’ signs were posted at the lagoon, none warned of gators.
Our thoughts go out to Lane’s family.
Source: Fox News.
Photo: Facebook / Jennifer Venditti.
