Question by Katie: I was fired for bringing up major safety violations at a summer camp. Who can I contact about the violations?
I was recently hired to work at a local summer camp, which is a big fundraiser for a Humane Society. After I started working there, I was appalled at the number of really unsafe practices that went on in the camp. For example, the shelter refuses to buy bathroom supplies like paper towels, toilet paper, or soap, so the kids have to make do without. The “play area” is the dog training area, so the kids are sitting, laying, and playing on a floor that dogs urinate and defecate on daily (it is never mopped, just swept, and messes are sprayed with a non-bleach cleaner and wiped up with paper towels. Extremely unhygienic.) We also share our camp/shelter facilities with the general public, and it’s only a matter of time until a kid ends up in a hallway, bathroom, or unoccupied room with a pedophile-they have no idea who is in the shelter or where at any given time, and with 20 kids moving around the shelter all day, it’s easy to glance away at just the wrong second. Nor do any of the regular shelter staff have to go through background checks or screenings, and again, they’re with the kids all day every day.
Camp leaders don’t receive any training at all-we were told to make it up as we go, so there are no emergency plans, no training in child abuse or blood-borne pathogens, there isn’t even basic emergency numbers or supplies-we have one box of band-aids. The HS won’t pay for more than 2 staff (now down to one), even though the camp runs 8:30-5:30 M-F, so they recruited “junior counselors” who are 15-17yo to “help” with camp. These volunteers have no training, and because of the way camp is set up and scheduled, the kids are frequently alone or in small groups with just one or two junior counselors. As a teacher, that scares me for the kids and the JC’s. One false allegation by a kid, and that teenager’s life will be ruined.
Finally, the administrators decided to allow extremely high-need Special Ed kids into camp without any advance warning or planning time for camp leaders, so we were faced with violent children and no training or guidelines in how to deal with them. I have bruises from being kicked, shoved, and bitten. Our only directive was that we couldn’t send them home for any reason. I think camp is great for all kids, regardless of ability level, but to put high-needs kids into a camp with no planning, preparation, and ridiculously low staffing is a guarantee that a kid or camp leader is going to get really hurt.
When I started raising my (many) concerns about the kids’ safety, I was fired. I contacted the state child care licensing agency, but they said they are really backed up with reports, and have no idea if they’ll make it out there before the summer is over.
Personally, I’m just glad to be out of that hellhole, and that I escaped without getting in trouble for what was going on there…but I’m worried about the kids who will be there the rest of the summer. I feel like a jerk just walking away knowing that they’re in danger of being hurt, molested, or of getting really sick from the filthy environment.
Does anyone know of anyone else I could call or file a report with to try and get these issues addressed?!

Best answer:

Answer by Carly
go right here and please report it aspa

http://www.aspca.org/Home/Fight-Animal-Cruelty/report-animal-cruelty

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