On May 17, I witnessed a truly horrifying scene with my family on a cruise: a 10-year-old girl drowned in a Norwegian Cruise Line ship pool. I’ve been on a lot of cruises, but this experience woke me up to a big problem among cruise companies: most do not employ lifeguards – people that could have saved this young girl’s life.

Pools on cruises are often very crowded. As a mom of three, I am constantly watching my kids, but I know it’s possible that I could miss something. After this tragic accident, people kept asking, "Where were the parents?" Yes, we must watch our children, but lifeguards can provide an additional level of safety that is desperately needed with many distractions on any ship.

What infuriates me is that the cruise lines always share their condolences after these incidents, but they rarely take action. I want to see the cruise lines make a commitment to lifeguards to help prevent these situations. I don’t want another young child – like my 10-year-old son – to be the next victim due to their failure to act.

I’m upset that cruise lines constantly put profits before passengers. Join me in calling for Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean to hire lifeguards for all of their ships to put passenger safety first.

I was so stunned by the lack of staff action when people began to realize something was wrong that day. No one seemed to take charge – it felt like forever before I saw a staff member do anything. A passenger who is a fireman rushed to help pull the young girl out of the water. CPR was performed, but it was too late. She was gone.

I want to take my family on a cruise again, but I won’t do so without lifeguards on board. Disney Cruise Lines – one of the world’s leading cruise lines – did the right thing and adopted lifeguards in 2013. With your support, we can push these other companies to follow that lead.

These cruise lines’ failure to act means that they are complicit in the deaths of their own customers. Please sign my petition to make this change. Let's come together to prevent another child drowning and another family's heartbreak.