Pennsylvania agency looking into allegations of discrimination at Philly-area swim club

Pa. looking into swim club discrimination claim

HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission will investigate allegations of racial discrimination against a Philadelphia-area swim club accused of kicking out black and Hispanic children.

Commission Chairman Stephen A. Glassman says his agency will launch an immediate probe Thursday into allegations that The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley discriminated against the Creative Steps day camp from northeast Philadelphia.

He says the NAACP requested the investigation.

Camp director Alethea Wright says the camp paid for weekly swim time. But she says during a trip there June 29 some of the children said they heard people asking what “black kids” were doing at the club. She says the club later refunded the camp’s $1,950 without explanation.

Calls to the swim club by The Associated Press have gone unanswered.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. (AP) — Members and officials of a private swimming pool in a Philadelphia suburb reacted to a visiting group of minority children by asking them not to return and pulling other kids out of the water, according to a day camp director who said Thursday that parents are considering legal action against the pool.

Creative Steps in northeast Philadelphia had contracted for the 65 children at the day camp to go each Monday afternoon to The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, camp director Alethea Wright said Thursday. But shortly after they arrived June 29, she said, some black and Hispanic children reported hearing racial comments.

“A couple of the children ran down saying, ‘Miss Wright, Miss Wright, they’re up there saying, ‘What are those black kids doing here?’”

Wright said she went to talk to a group of members at the top of the hill and heard one woman say she would see to it that the group, made of up of children in kindergarten through seventh grade, did not return.

“Some of the members began pulling their children out of the pool and were standing around with their arms folded,” Wright said. “Only three members left their children in the pool with us.”

Several days later, the club refunded the camp’s $1,950 without explanation, said Wright, who added that some parents are “weighing their options” on legal action.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., issued a statement calling the allegations “extremely disturbing” and said he was looking into the matter.

Club president John Duesler told Philadelphia television station WTXF that several club members complained because the children “fundamentally changed the atmosphere” at the pool, but that the complaints didn’t involve race.

The club’s telephone message system was full and a message could not be left there by The Associated Press; Duesler did not return calls to his home.

A club member told a newspaper that she understood the problem was the size of the group, not race. But Wright rejected that explanation, saying the club covers 10 acres with a “nice-sized” pool and a separate pool for younger children. The board, she said, knew that her group included 65 children, and none of them had misbehaved.

“We were not welcome, once the members saw who we were,” she said.

Wright said that the children were upset, and that she was looking for a psychologist to speak to them next week. Some have asked her whether they are “too dark” to swim in the pool, she said.

“I’m not going to validate this behavior by adults,” Wright said. “It’s unacceptable. This is preposterous, and I won’t stand for it.”

Wright said Girard College had offered to host the children for the summer, and a meeting was scheduled later Thursday to work out the details.