Parties and day-care centers reserved and paid to come.
They were required to GIVE THE NUMBER OF GUESTS and the GUESTS AGES so we could have adequate lifeguard staff (as mandated by the state).
When a Cub Scout group showed up with 75!! kids instead of the 25 they contracted for-—I made them rotate the kids in the pool.
That's probably what happened.
Pool clubs are generally pretty small in the Philadelphia suburbs. If someone brought 60 kids from outside of our community to our pool club on a weekly basis, there would be a lot of complaints unless all the members had been informed and were on board with the idea. These clubs are communities where people know one another, let their children go to the pool alone, cheer on their swim teams, and enjoy evening social activities. It’s not a municipal pool setting where there are many strangers. I think this pool manager horribly misjudged the situation. To what extent it was race, to what extent the kids’ behavior, and to what extend sheer numbers, I don’t know. On numbers alone, however, most clubs would have had a lot of trouble with this influx (lifeguarding, toilets, seating, noise levels, and even pool chemistry are affected by numbers of kids in the pool).
I think the most likely thing is that they had a bunch of members who were quite uncomfortable hanging around black people, and when those members complained about the black kids and threatened to quit, the club decided to pull the contract.
And I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the members who complained were liberals, although frankly there are still a lot of racists of all colors and political persuasions, and there always will be, because it is human nature to like being with people who are “like” you, and dislike being with people who are “dissimilar”.
“When a Cub Scout group showed up with 75!! kids instead of the 25 they contracted for-—I made them rotate the kids in the pool. That’s probably what happened.”
Maybe. Maybe not. I think probably the management fouled up here, big time. Wanted the $1900 and failed to project what would happen when the kids from the daycamp actually showed up.
I have belonged to the local swim club for many years. Two kids who were on the swim team are now lifeguards. So I have some informed perspective.
There is NO CHANCE that 60 kids from a daycamp arriving together would not disrupt the pool and upset the regular members. That’s a lot of kids! And, by definition, they are not there with their parents. Irrespective of skin color, they are going to make noise and run around and not know all the rules.
That is normal and expected. Should have been anticipated. Throw in the race factor, and management created a mess.