PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, September 23. LAST summer, word filtered out from Philadelphia that the Valley Swim Club allegedly discriminated against the Creative Steps day care center, a group comprised mostly of minorities.
Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) "issued a finding of probable cause…that racism was involved," when Valley refunded Creative Steps' money and asked them to leave, according to a CNN report.
Also according to the article, "the commission ordered monetary damages for humiliation and embarrassment and a civil penalty of not more than $50,000."
After a paid-for visit by Creative Steps on June 29, members of the Valley Swim Club began complaining to the board of directors. Shortly thereafter, the club canceled the contract with Creative Steps and refunded the $1,950 payment for use of the facilities.
Valley's legal representative Joe Tucker blames a potential media backlash for the decision.
"I believe the people at the PHRC are very good people, but they were put in a tough position," Tucker told CNN. "If the PHRC would have decided against the children or in favor of the club, they would have been painted with the same unfair and untrue racist brush that the Valley Swim Club was painted with."
Full text of CNN article.
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September 23, 2009 Oh my gosh, racism racism racism!! Yikes.
Safety and crowding are legit concerns for a club, not racism. Since swimming isn't part of their culture(reason so few blacks and hispanics are swimmers in our country) I can see safety being a MAJOR concern for club. They did get a refund and we all know how important for clubs to get that extra money here and there(swim-a-thons come to mind)so come on racism.
What bad publicity for the swimming world. If minorities want help, stop crying racism over every little thing. Plenty of whites are asked to leave swim clubs because of their behavior as well. Even Olympians and World Champ swimmers have been asked to leave clubs cuz of the behavior. Submitted by: FASTER
September 23, 2009 Agree with you,FASTER. Submitted by: Xue
September 24, 2009 Clearly neither of you saw the interviews with the little kids who were asked to leave and not come back. Submitted by: natacao
September 24, 2009 /Actually natacao I did and no one wants to see little kids hurt but little kids like that shouldnt be interviewed anyway.What careless adult allowed that How humiliating for them. This whole thing should not be about race!
My above comments still stand. Submitted by: FASTER
September 24, 2009 I find it interesting that people can have such strident opinions about an incident they themselves did not witness. I was not there so I can't really form an opinion on the validity of the charges. I'm also not satisfied that what has filtered out to the media is sufficient for me to have an accurate idea of what transpired either. Frankly, I don't see how people can be so comfortable jumping in and taking sides on this. It seems people take their attitudes and past experiences of this issue at large and try to transpose onto this story. What if you're wrong? What if the charges are/aren't true? Who really made it "about race?" The club or the visitors? Submitted by: ShortChange
September 24, 2009 Doesn't really matter who made it about race. What matters is they are using the race card and that's not fair. Submitted by: FASTER
September 24, 2009 Diversity Summit 2009 (9/24/2009)
USA Swimming will host a Diversity Summit at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs from November 12-15, 2009. We encourage the General Chair or an active, engaged LSC representative to come to the Summit. The challenges of diversity require attention at the highest level within the LSC.
The focus of this year's Diversity Summit will be on constructive ways to impact diversity efforts in your LSC. We often hear from LSC's that when it comes to diversity "we don't know what to do." This conference will focus on the practical and doable. We will hear from some other NGB's to find out what they are doing. We will also ask you to bring your ideas and current projects to share. Some LSCs are making great strides in diversity and others are, unfortunately, doing very little. Come ready to learn from others and then go home and "hit the pool" with ideas you can implement immediately in your LSC.
Please mark the dates November 12-15, 2009 on your LSC calendar. Each LSC will be responsible for airfare for the participant. All expenses while in Colorado Springs will be covered by USA Swimming. Submitted by: FASTER
September 25, 2009 Faster, "Doesn't really matter who made it about race. What matters is they are using the race card and that's not fair."
How do you know? Unless you know what happened how do you know what's fair and what isn't here? You're diving in head first and making a lot of assumptions. Secondly it does matter who made it about race. That's the whole crux of the incident and it's aftermath.
It doesn't help matters when people trot out the old canard "they're using the race card" in an attempt to throw a wet blanket over incidents involving possible discrimination. There are two sides saying two different things. Unless you have intimate knowledge of events I don't see how you can jump squarely into the corner of one party while completely dismissing the other.
Submitted by: ShortChange
September 25, 2009 shortchange- I'm saying the MEDIA immediately jumps on it as a RACIST problem when in fact it may not be!!!!!! Typical mainstream media Submitted by: FASTER
September 27, 2009 It is a shame that in this nation everyone from the president to lazy bums plays the race card. Submitted by: Xue
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