Austin Lifeguards Allege Grooming and Sexual Misconduct, Alongside Inaction from City Officials.

By Elijah Carll

Reporting Texas

Every summer, thousands of residents and tourists come to visit the dozens of public pools around Austin. Barton Springs, one of the most popular, has brought in around 800,000 visitors in recent years, according to the City of Austin. 

Ellyna Thompson started lifeguarding there when she was 18 years old, soon after graduating from high school. For her, the job wasn’t just about fun outdoor work.

“(The other lifeguards) were (my) friends. We did things outside of work, and we’d go on trips together and go tubing,” Thompson said. “It was like adult summer camp.”

As time passed, she began to notice troubling behavior from two male lifeguards who held managerial positions at the pool. She described an older manager sending inappropriate texts to a lifeguard her age, which led the two to submit a complaint to Human Resources in 2020. Soon after submitting it, she says a high-ranking Parks and Recreation official spoke to her one-on-one.

“(She) said: “If you were less promiscuous, you wouldn’t be experiencing these problems,” Thompson said. “You need to figure out why you’re seeking attention from these older men.”

Thompson said she was let go soon afterwards. An anonymous follow-up complaint was made in 2022. In 2023, investigators with the Human Resources department said the official had “not received or been made aware of complaints” regarding aquatic male employees propositioning lifeguards for sexual favors. Investigators also said they could not locate Ellyna, whose name they misspelled in the investigation report, or the other lifeguard. 

Thompson said older lifeguards at Barton Springs Pool, who she described as in their early-to-mid-thirties, played a large role in the lives of young female lifeguards there.

“We used to joke that we were raised by them. They’d give us weird designer drugs, (they) taught us how to grocery shop (and) how to pay rent,” Thompson said. “We dated them before we moved out of our parents’ homes, all of us.”

Scott Cobb first started lifeguarding when he was a teenager. He had been working at Barton Springs Pool for eight years when, in 2019, management there found a 19-year-old female employee had been dating an older male manager. The 19-year-old was transferred into a non-lifeguard position in the Watershed Protection unit, while the manager continued to lifeguard at Deep Eddy. An investigation in 2024 by the Human Resources department stated allegations of “sexual exploitation” in this case were unsubstantiated. As of January of this year, PARD documents list the manager as a current employee at Barton Springs.

“I (asked her), “Why are you quitting?” She told me, “If I take this job, it’s more likely that the manager will be able to keep his job here”, Cobb said. “She was one of the best lifeguards that we had.”

Cobb has frequently criticized Parks and Recreation on this issue, both on social media and in person, speaking at Austin City Council meetings twice in the past four months. 

“It has to be the adults in the room, the H.R. professionals, who say, ‘We don’t believe that consent can exist in such a relationship when there’s such a disparity in power between the manager and the lifeguard,” Cobb said. 

In a memo sent to Mayor Kirk Watson on March 25th, Parks and Recreation Director Jose Agrurre stated that while previous allegations of “grooming” were investigated and found to have “not occurred,” the department was willing to take a new look at the situation. To that end, Agrurre promised that, with the help of the Human Resources department, an independent third-party investigation and “culture scan” would take place to “strengthen prevention efforts.”

In December of last year, Jo Wiseman, a former lifeguard at Deep Eddy, spoke to Austin City Council. In her testimony, she described an “exploitative” system that allowed male “lower management” employees to prey on younger female lifeguards.

“What’s sad about it is they could simply actually look into it, hold a handful of people accountable, and really change the culture in that department around quite a bit,” Wiseman told Reporting Texas TV. “I think it would make it a much more wonderful place for the patrons, citizens, swimmers, locals, visitors, and employees alike.”

The City of Austin has declined Reporting Texas TV’s request to speak with Parks and Rec staff, and referred us to the March 25th memo. No additional announcements have been made as to the status of the third-party investigation.

“The city of Austin is going to have the best lifeguarding job in the country,” Cobb said. “We’re going to pull (Parks and Recreation) into the 21st century.”