<p>Since when did it become the 1950s all over again? Even young kids know how to discriminate?</p>
<p>If the club really didn’t want those kids, they should have never taken the membership money. But hey, money talks. Now, those poor kids will have to live with that experience for the rest of their lives. </p>
<p>The sad part about all of this is it will be very hard to sue that club because it is private property.</p>
<p>As much as people would like to believe this type of thinking is gone, it’s not. It is alive and thriving. We now have 65 children and their families, relatives, friends and acquaintances that are pretty sure racism is alive and well.</p>
<p>If I were a member of a private swim club, I’d blow a gasket if the management rented out the facilities to hoardes of kids. Any kids. All kids. Camp counselors can’t provide the level of supervision that individual families can. The board of that club should be fired.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised that people are racist. I’m not even surprised that people are so racist that they wouldn’t want their kids swimming in a pool with black and Hispanic kids.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised that so many people were being so open about their racism in front of its targets. The very racist people that I’ve known in my life would have tried to give the appearance of nothing being wrong, but might have complained to management later.</p>
<p>Having 65 kids descend on a pool, no matter what their color, would be traumatic. The pool isn’t that huge. It would definitely change the ambiance (“complexion”) of the poolside experience. Management should have let the membership know ahead of time that Thursday afternoon (or whenever) was going to be YMCA day. Then people could come to the pool at a later time or a later day to avoid the crowded and noisy atmosphere.</p>
<p>Not to say that people from Philadelphia can’t be or weren’t racist, but management should have let their members know what was going on.</p>
<p>^The management didn’t seem to have problems with the color of the children, but the actual members seemed to have some problem (whether racial or crowding or whatever) with the kids being there. According to the article, “some parents are ‘weighing their options’ on legal action.”</p>
<p>Wonder what their cause of action will be? Ability to cancel their memberships?</p>
<p>Looks like pool management will be hit from BOTH sides…</p>
<p>zm, I agree! Many years ago D was on a swim team that rented pool time at a private country club (the club cost $5K to join, $200/month/person, luckily, we did not have to be “members”). The team almost lost its pool time because members complained about some swim team kids who were horsing around, messing up the family locker rooms and sneaking into hot tub and adults only rooms.</p>
<p>Agree, the management of that club should have warned the members and was much better prepared. According to one article, there wern’t enough lifeguards on duty when the daycare kids showed up. What was the management thinking? :eek:</p>
<p>I’d have had a problem too. I wouldn’t have wanted that many unattended kids anywhere near me.</p>
<p>A few years ago, the law firm I worked at used to host a summer social event for which they’d take over one of the Hudson River cruise boats and have an elegant lunch for the employees. It was a nice thing, but one year they decided to invite a group of about 40 underprivileged 10-12 year old boys to this event. They came with about six counselors. Let me tell you, it was the most miserable experience for everyone. It wasn’t the place for that many kids of the specific range and they felt picked on, but everyone was concerned that one of them would fall overboard! The managers of the organization were furious that the kids didn’t have a good time and screamed racism, and the employees of the firm were furious that they had to endure such a stressful experience. There are just times, places, and circumstances where people don’t want to deal, and I bet this is one of them. Which isn’t to say that individuals aren’t racist, but I can see not wanting a day camp at your getaway.</p>
<p>It’s really unfortunate that the 65 kids were a different race than the pool members, because I think the members’ reaction would have been the same no matter what the race of the 65 kids. I’d be furious at the board, too. If I’d paid dues for a private swim club, I’d be furious if the 65 kids were movie stars’ kids. If my kids were there and knew they were at a “private club” and then 65 non-members came in, they might also ask “What are *they *doing here?”, not from a racial standpoint but as what are all these non-members doing here?</p>
<p>Edited to add: I just read that the group ranged in age from kindergarten to 7th grade. Oh my goodness, can you imagine 15 or 20 5th to 7th grade boys descending on your pool?</p>
<p>My swim club recently discussed opening up time to camps as a way to make money. The people for the idea were the working parents who visit the club on the weekends. Those of us who enjoy the relative peace and quiet during weekdays were strongly against it. It wasn’t an issue of race but of adding 30 or so kids without parents. I’m open to the idea that “complexion” was an extremely poor choice of word.</p>
<p>Perhaps some of you have experienced visiting a public place at the same time as school groups or day camps. They aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong but it changes the experience. I just feel the full story isn’t known here.</p>
<p>We never, ever visit the Staten Island Zoo during the week in the summer or even visit the nicest park in the area because daycamp kids are bused in from Brooklyn in vast numbers.</p>
<p>Speaking as someone who used to work as a visitor guide at a popular museum…summer camp groups are HELL. School groups are pretty bad, but they are heaven itself compared to dealing with summer camp groups. The kids are on vacation, the counselors are just bigger kids who couldn’t care less, and God help the museum staff. And this was an indoor museum where the kids probably weren’t all that excited to go…I can’t imagine how bad the behavior would be at a pool.</p>
<p>15 years later, I still want to strangle the unsupervised 4th grade campers who were bothering adult visitors in the bathroom stalls (staring at people on the toilet through the crack in the stall door, crawling underneath the doors, etc.). You can imagine what an earful those adult visitors gave me when they came to complain about being harassed in the museum bathrooms. Grrr!</p>
<p>And that’s probably why the swim club management decided to take the $2000 from the Day Camp. With increased costs, maybe decreased revenue from members not renewing their memberships (you have to cut somewhere), you need to have a certain revenue stream to pay for the high fixed costs of a pool. </p>
<p>Still, if you’re looking to do something for money that would detract from the experience of your membership, you better keep them informed and make sure they are on board.</p>