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5-year-old drowns after disappearing off a float in Allatoona Lake, DNR says

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. — A Bartow County community is mourning the loss of a 5-year-old who drowned on Allatoona Lake.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources confirmed Kaiden Franklin died Saturday afternoon at Clear Creek.

Witnesses said Franklin was playing on a float and disappeared into the lake a few minutes later.

Around 4:35 p.m., game wardens found the boy’s body.

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“It’s that time of year when we’ll start to see stories like the one were discussing now, and it’s unfortunate,” said Tatum Morris, who is a swim instructor.

Morris specializes in survival swimming techniques for children.

“We do teach them a swim-float-swim sequence so they know how to roll over indefinitely if they need to so they can check their surroundings. Like where am I at? Which way is to safety versus swimming out to danger,” Morris said.

Morris has this advice for parents during the summer swim season.

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“Don’t let kids swim by themselves. No unsupervised swimming and don’t let other children to supervise children because they get distracted,” Morris said.

Model Elementary School confirmed Franklin attended the Floyd County school and had just graduated from kindergarten.

The school shared photos of Franklin with the family’s permission.

“Our deepest pain is having to share the passing of one of our own school babies. Our hearts are broken to have to share this news with our school family,” the school posted on Facebook.

Model Elementary School said it is in the process of setting up a donation fund for the family and has organized a meal train.

Donations for the family can also be dropped off at Model Elementary this week.

Our deepest pain is having to share the passing of one of our own school babies. Our hearts are broken to have to share...

Posted by Model Elementary School on Sunday, May 29, 2022

Model Elementary School said it is in the process of setting up a donation fund for the family and has organized a meal train.

Donations for the family can also be dropped off at Model Elementary this week.

In 2021, state officials confirmed four drownings over the Memorial Day weekend. Three of the people who died were children.

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