“And if everyone jumped off a bridge, Johnny, would you do it, too?”

Unfortunately, some Skaneateles adolescents are saying “yes” to this age-old rhetorical question. The Skaneateles Police Department has received several reports of children at play jumping off of both sides of the Genesee Street bridge near the Bluewater Grill, seemingly to get a cool dip into the water below or to impress their friends with their daredevil skills.

Children are also taking the plunge into Skaneateles Lake from the chamber-owned dock, nearby pier, and a privately owned boathouse, and the department wants to let the community know the dangers of such actions.

“It's been a problem for years,” Chief Lloyd Perkins said. “We just don't want to see anyone get hurt.”

This year is about average in terms of the number of reports made about the unwanted behavior, Perkins said. When it's hot out, the department receives calls about bridge- or dock-jumping a couple times a week, he said.

While there have been no injuries in recent history, Perkins said that it's not safe to have children swimming in areas not watched by lifeguards and that it's dangerous to swim where boats are coming and going.

“We just can't have people swim wherever they want to swim and assume the liability,” he added.

Perkins said that adolescents jumping off the Genesee Street bridge are a distraction for traffic and can get in the way of pedestrians.

Additionally, a brick boathouse next to the bridge that some teens jump off is private property, Perkins noted.

Four lifeguards on duty in the Clift Park swimming area last Wednesday said that the actions the police are warning against are evident but that the illegal jumping hasn't been as much of a problem as in years past.

“We had to warn a couple of kids who were jumping off (the boathouse), and their father was right there,” lifeguard Jimmy Carro said.

Brigid Ryan, a lifeguard for almost three years, doesn't understand why people leap into the lake from a high location. She's seen lifeguards get hurt just jumping off the seawall in the course of their duties.

“It's not a pleasant experience,” she said of hitting the rocky bottom. “I can't imagine why anybody would want to do it.”

If the police department receives a call that someone is jumping from the bridge or other off-limits areas, the officer will send the child home and call the parents, Perkins said.

If it's cold (as was the case with one adolescent who decided to jump off the bridge during the winter when there was still slush in the water), the officer will drive the individual home, the chief said.

Perkins said that the department will make an arrest “if we get repeat offenders.” The department has not had to do this thus far, Perkins said.