Valley Club, Swim Club that Discriminated Against Black Campers, Will File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection

Valley Club, the community pool that was thrust into the national spotlight this past summer after discriminating against minority campers from the Creative Steps Day Camp, issued an email which, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, simply reads, "The End." The club's director, John Duesler, disclosed that the club's board of directors had voted 5-1 to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Rewind to this past summer, the campers' families had alleged that their children's pool privileges were revoked for no other reason than because the club's white members didn't want children of color to use the club. It had been rumored for months that the club would not survive the costs associated with the legal proceedings and lawsuits filed on behalf of the campers, though Duesler said that legal costs were only partly to blame for the club's financial woes.

"While many will point towards our legal situation and negative media exposure this summer as the reason" for the bankruptcy filing, "the truth is that the club has struggled to stay out of the red for at least the last decade," he wrote.

"Despite our most ambitious efforts and countless hours of dedication towards the club, we have been unable to grow our membership enough to sustain The Valley Club any longer. Indeed, we have not been profitable, for as long as I've been with the club. And our current debt from this year's operation and legal fees now exceeds $100,000." Combining that "business fact with legal proceedings," he said, Valley's board sought advice from the club's bondholders about how to steer the club's future.

"With nearly 400 letters mailed to our current bond-holders, and less than 50 returned, apathy was clearly the tone that won the day," he wrote. " . . . We have also emailed . . . last year's members, and have understandably received a collective shrug of the shoulders . . . we 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." Source: Philly.com

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission had concluded in a report released in September, that racial discrimination had occurred at the club. The state commission 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. The moral of this saga is that you cannot openly practice discrimination and fly under the radar for long. You will get caught and thrust into national spotlight, which will always work against you.