Swim Club Accused Of Racism To File For Bankruptcy

PHILADELPHIA — A suburban swim club accused of discrimination last summer after revoking the memberships of mostly black and Hispanic children plans to declare bankruptcy, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Valley Swim Club president John Duesler sent an e-mail to club "friends and families" Friday saying the board of directors had voted to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this week, The Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Duesler wrote in the e-mail that many would blame the bankruptcy on legal proceedings and negative media exposure, the newspaper said. But, he said, "the truth is that the club has struggled to stay out of the red for at least the last decade" and owes more than $100,000 in operational expenses and legal fees, the newspaper reported.

Duesler declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Members "are all tired and beaten down and just sickened by how our club has been improperly portrayed," he said, according to the Daily News. "After speaking to many members, my sense is that mostly everyone wants to move on."

The Creative Steps day camp had arranged for the youngsters to swim at the Huntingdon Valley club each Monday during the summer. But during the first visit in June by 56 children – 46 black and 10 Hispanic – two children reported hearing racial comments, and the day camp's payment was later refunded, according to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

The commission said in a decision in September that it had found probable cause to conclude that the campers were asked not to return because of the "racial animus" expressed by one member and "racially coded comments" by other members.

"I am taken aback right now. It really comes as a surprise," Creative Steps director Alethea Wright told the AP on Saturday when told about the reported bankruptcy plans.

Brian Mildenberg, an attorney for the children in a lawsuit against the swim club, told the AP the bankruptcy filing puts a temporary stay, or hold, on the suit filed against the club.

"However, the human relations discrimination proceedings, as well as the lawsuits, would be allowed to proceed if the bankruptcy court grants relief," Mildenberg said.

The Valley Club has maintained that the number of children exceeded the number of lifeguards on duty and that only a few of the children knew how to swim. A club attorney said it had offered to reinstate the campers for the rest of the summer or guarantee them free memberships next year.

The state commission, however, said other large groups that came to the swim club did not elicit a similar reaction, and the club had no black members among 334 paid memberships for the last two years.

___

Information from: Philadelphia Daily News, http://www.philly.com

Comments

[nananance]

If Valley Swim Club didn't want its members to be overwhelmed by a large group of children, it should hever have accepted $1,950 from the camp and then revoked the invitation after they saw the campers, saying, that "a lot of kids would change the complexion­...and the atmosphere"
The club's membership is tired, beaten down and sickened by how they have been portrayed? Great! Perhaps now they will begin to get a clue about how many members of minority groups feel when confronted with such outrageous bigotry in the 21st century

[Rick H]

Surely the swim club knew the kids were black and hispanic when they invited them. So where's the racism?.

"outrageous bigotry"? - Two people commented that there were "a lot of black kids at the pool" and thats bigotry?.

The only victims of racism here are the whites at the Valley Swim Club.

[nananance]

Obviously the person who accepted the membership was unprepared for the racist reaction of the club's members, who immediately pulled their children out of the pool when the campers got in.
If people are so stuck in the 1950s that they are afraid to swim with people of color, they need to build backyard pools where they are free to discriminate.

[DUSAA-1775]

Two children stated that they had over heard racial comments. If those comments expressed bigotry...­that would not be a club that I would want to belong to. The swim club president said the law suits did not cause the closing, but if they owe $100,000 I am sure that however expensive the legal fees were, those costs dd not help the financial situation.
The swim club testified that they were over whelmed by the 56 kids and the club was not able to safely supervise that large an influx, due to lack of life guards and the fact that most of the 56 children did not know how to swim.
The club's lawyer stated they had offered to re- instate the children for the rest of the year or to give them free membership next year. But that offer was just not good enough, even if it would have been in the children's best interest.
But the bottom line is the club is a private club. It's members can set up the rules and membership any way they wish...The­y are a private club for crying out loud.

[Rick H]

"No good deed goes unpunished".

[viktornacht]

I'm surprised the black community in that area doesn't have a publically funded pool that they can use.

[Don Quixote]

Good. It's Karma. It's what happens, and should happen, to people like you. It makes me feel that there is justice in the universe. How does it feel to be singled out and excluded? Not so good, eh?

[dollbaby]

right

[TheFabOne]

Duesler said Members "are all tired and beaten down and just sickened by how our club has been improperly portrayed. After speaking to many members, my sense is that mostly everyone wants to move on."

You're racists, that's how you were portrayed, because that's what you are. The sad thing is, he's right about one thing. Everyone wants to move on. So that means, instead of learning something from this, all the racists will 'move on' to another establishment where they can be all-White again. The only thing that's changed is the location of the club.

[bluguy8]

karma is a wonderful thing. you never know how fast it's going to get you back .

[cloudmaker]

There's a lot of racism in American, but this was bum rap.

[publanski]

How so?

[cloudmaker]

How so? Because the media made it look like racism when it wasn't. If you're at a pool and suddenly they release a mob of high-energy , splashing, screaming, fun-loving children of any color or race, it's going to be unpleasant if youre not one of the kids. I am sure some people were bigots, but this was not a race incident. What it was was a good hook for a news story.

[jeffrey678]

The Developers Win. Since State and local governments are financially strapped the developers will have the highest bid for the property.

[jeffrey678]

New condominiums . No more pool.

[EvieEve]

Wow, guess they couldn't afford to be racist after all.

[ibivi]

They're bankrupt alright, morally bankrupt. Declaring insolvency is their cynical way of dodging the law suits filed against them.

[AdV2k1]

i heard that Rush said he will bail them out and keep the pool open for white people I mean dittoheads only.

[jcko]

Rather fold than integrate, eh?

[dollbaby]

you betcha

[FrTown]

Chapter 7 bankruptcy means an immediate liquidation of all assets.
The community should step in and buy the pool.

[cocolola]

Sniff, sniff. :)

[GwenWare]

What a convenient bankruptcy! File bankruptcy and avoid paying a lawsuit?