New Update On The PA Kids Who Were Kicked Out Of Pool Because They Weren’t White

AKA William — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:40:29 +0000

Back in July, I wrote about the 56 kids from The Creative Steps Day Camp in Philadelphia who were kicked out of the The Valley Swim Club because they weren’t white.

Despite reports that the children were told to exit the pool because they weren’t white, The Valley Swim Club denied any wrongdoing. However, a state investigation found that there was a whole lot of wrongdoing:

A state investigation found that [the Valley Swim Club] racially discriminated against 56 African-American and Hispanic children in June when it revoked an agreement to allow a Northeast Philadelphia day camp to use its pool after the children’ first visit.
“The racial animus . . . and the racially-coded comments” by club members at the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley were the reasons the club revoked Creative Steps Inc.’s contract, according to a 33-page report . . .
. . . The commission ordered the club to pay a $50,000 civil penalty for the club’s discrimation again one child, whose parents filed the complain with the commission.

The Human Relations Commission report said the club had 155 paid membership in 2009 and 179 in 2008, none held by an African-American.

Also, the report noted that when Valley Club tried in 2009 to expand its membership the mailings used to recruit new members were “mainly directed at areas with overwhelmingly Caucasian populations.”

AKA William » Creative Steps Day Camp

New Update On The PA Kids Who Were Kicked Out Of Pool Because They Weren’t White