Since the story clearly notes that he’s not representing either party, I’ll be awfully impressed if he makes a boatload in the settlement.
Don’t understand what the hell having a black President has to do with anything, though.
ETA: Beaten to the punch.
Contrapuntal -
Here is a story, short and sweet about another case that was settled yesterday. I relies heavily on “No admission of guilt” so all sides recognized that each is free to spin the story however they want in the face of the facts.
Hope this helps you understand the normal, routine course of action in cases like this.
As for filing a suit, sometimes that is necessary to bring the other party to the negotiating table in a timely manner.
In this particular case, as I said repeatedly, don’t expect it to see a courtroom. There is a clear resolution for the club, and they have already hinted in the press that they are prepared to moving to do the right thing.
Of course, if individuals are liable due to their own actions or to a pierced corporate shield, that is another matter altogether. I don’t know if that is the case nor can any of us because of the lack of information we have about what happened in detail.
Well, it depends on the other methods. In this instance, the swim club has re-invited the campers. The camp had the opportunity to at least try to turn this mess into a healing and bridge-building experience – to give the swim club one chance to prove that it’s not as bad as it appears. They’ve chosen not to. I can understand that – I might make the same choice. But the lesson the kids are getting is:
If a white person does something bad to you, it’s because you’re African American and they’re racist. You should be scarred by this.
If the white person then admits they were wrong and tries to apologize, don’t accept. Hang on to your anger.
Neither of these have anything to do with a law suit. It is perfectly possible to hold these two view points and not sue. If this was the bad lesson that the kids are, in your mind being taught, it would be better to critique that than the act of suing.
If there was no evidence of racism at play, they might be getting the first lesson.
In any case, only one parent has filed suit so far.
Ah yes, the Al Sharpton philosophy of race relations.
Point taken. Those comments of mine really had to do more with the camp’s (apparently unanimous) refusal to accept the swim club’s reinvitation.
A brief update on this, Tyler Perry is sending all the kids to Disney World! I don’t watch his movies, but that’s a really nice thing to do. Now they’ll have good memories of this summer.
…and the Walt Disney Company has sent them all home again, citing safety concerns.
Just kidding.
I belong to a private swim club. We are not allowed to host parties without prior notification to the Pool Manager. Entire groups of children can be (and have been), turned away if the parents fail to do this. The rule is in place so the manager can staff up on lifeguards, if he feels it’s warranted. SIXTY guests of any age above and beyond the normal expected crowd would have resulted in an immediate shut down at our pool until sufficient lifeguards could be called in.
So I think it showed really, really crappy management on both sides (both the DayCare and the Pool) for not communicating with each other as to when these children would be using the pool so that sufficient lifeguards could be staffed. 60 children require a lot of supervision even without a pool! This particular club had contracts with at least 3 daycares. Those contracts should have stipulated prior notification for safety reasons!
Prior notification would also allow the pool management to let their other patrons know when to expect these huge influxes of kids so that they can avoid that time if it would bother them. Two subdivisions in our area host picnics at our pool once a year and the normally placid pool runs amuck with children. These events are posted on a board at the Club so that everyone knows what’s up.
It’s worth noting that one way that the US government can and does put pressure on some openly racist organizations is to threaten to remove their non-profit status. This is how the US government forced Bob Jones University, a private Fundamentalist college, to integrate its student body. I have some issues, constitutionally, with the fact that the government has the leverage to do this, but I don’t know of any instances where I disagree with the result. If this swimming pool is a non-profit organization, what they’re doing is not illegal but will probably lose them their tax-free status.
The invitation was approved by the pool board. I’d hope that the pool manager attends board meetings, if he or she is not on the board. I doubt safety was an issue.
The private pool I used to belong to had Memorial and Labor Day parties where far more than 65 kids came. There may have been two lifeguards on, no more than that.
They may, or they may not. First they have to get from the parking lot to the ticket counter. That means at least 65 people of color dealing with the Philadelphia Police Department.
Once inside, and ticketed, they have to clear TSA. That means at least 65 people of color passing through TSA Screening in Philly, staffed by Phila Police wanna-bees.
They’ll never make their flight.