Day camp, campers plan to sue club

PHILADELPHIA, July 14 (UPI) -- A Philadelphia day camp whose children were asked to leave a private swim club rejected the club's invitation to return and announced its intentions to sue.

Alethea Wright, executive director of Creative Steps Inc., said she hasn't returned a text message from Valley Club President John Duesler Jr. asking her to call him, and that the camp and many of the campers' families plan to file a federal discrimination suit, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.

"The children are permanently scarred," Wright said Monday during a news conference.

She said Duesler cited the pool's inability to accommodate the 65 campers when he asked them not to return, adding she didn't understand how the group could return "unless additional footage is added."

The children, mostly black and Hispanic, won't return to Valley Club any time soon, despite a near-unanimous vote among members to try to atone for the action Jan. 29, the Inquirer said. The club was slammed with allegations of racism after the incident.

"We realized it was the right thing to do," Duesler said.