Andrew Batton, father of a young teen daughter, spoke out about their experience at Raging Rivers WaterPark in Grafton, Illinois in 2022. What was supposed to be a fun family day at the water park quickly turned into a traumatic experience.
Andrew’s daughter was asked to publicly weigh herself before being denied access to the new slide, the Mississippi Monster. The family, who are season ticket holders, were looking forward to trying out the new slide. They were unaware of the weight limit of 200 pounds.
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Andrew spoke out about the incident on KMOV, a local television station in St. Louis, Missouri. He said it was only after climbing up the hill and standing in line to ride the slide that they were told about the weight limit. He stated, “The guy looked at us and to my daughter and said, ‘You need to step on the scale. She steps on the scale and she’s 205.”
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Andrew expressed his confusion about the weight limit as it was not communicated to them beforehand. He said, “I was like, ‘There’s nothing on the media about that. Was this posted anywhere? He was like, ‘No. We’ve had some people getting hurt so we’re limiting the weight on the ride.’”
A statement from Raging Rivers WaterPark disagrees with this assessment. It states: “Our goal is never to embarrass anyone, but we must look out for their safety while visiting Raging Rivers. Raging Rivers takes an abundance of precautions to ensure the safety of our guests while enjoying our slides and attractions. The new Mississippi Monster Slide has a max weight limit of 200 lbs per rider. Signage is located at the base of the slide, alerting guests of this restriction. In addition, there is a scale that all guests who choose to ride the attraction must step on to ensure they meet the safety requirements for the ride. We will continue to follow manufacturer guidelines for safety while offering our guests a fun experience at Raging Rivers Waterpark.”
Andrew says while it was disappointing to not get to ride the slide, what was worse was seeing his daughter publicly humiliated. He worries how this incident will impact her psychological well-being. “Tears wound up in her eyes,” he said. “We as parents now have to undo the emotional damage that this corporate company caused us.”
Andrew also took to Facebook shortly after the incident to express his feelings of frustration as a father. He stated, “Raging rivers has been such a source of joy for my daughter throughout her childhood to have such an amazingly awful experience today has saddened me beyond words as well as negativity impacted my daughter in a way that I am sure we are going to be discussing in therapy for years to come.”
Raging Rivers WaterPark does plan to increase the weight limit in the future with the arrival of new water tubes. Unfortunately for one teen, the damage has already been done.
