A Connecticut girl is humiliated, her parents say, after her sleepaway camp in the Berkshires kicked her out for kissing a boy on her 15th birthday. Naturally the parents have decided to fight back against cootie-intolerant Camp Emerson with a $600,000 lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, "This summer romance made plaintiff Jane, a child of divorced parents who suffers from anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and treats with a psychiatrist and medications, and who always felt insecure and inferior to her peers, feel confident and beautiful for the very first time in her life" and characterized the interactions between the two kids as "the summer romance that most teens yearn for."
The girl's dad told 1010 WINS, "Kissing, that was all that was going on," explaining that his daughter kissed a 15-year-old fellow camper behind the arts-and-crafts building. The lawsuit claims that the camp's director "yelled” and "screamed" at the teens and falsely accused the girl of taking off her bra, as well as calling her a "slut" and a "tramp." The camp director also allegedly expelled her "for the campers’ safety because her acts were dangerous."
Further, the dad said that he's a "prude father, especially when it comes to my daughters, but a kiss in summer camp isn’t something that should result in being booted out of camp," and says the camp has a three-strike policy for camper—and this was his daughter's first strike.
According to the AP, the lawsuit alleges that male counselors at the camp had "encouraged the boy to kiss the girl"—they even allegedly high-fived the boy afterwards. The lawsuit also notes that kissing is not prohibited and accuses the camp of letting other types of bad behavior (like campers peeing on other campers, campers caught in bed together, bullying) to continue.
The lawsuit also seeks a refund (a four-week session at Camp Emerson is $6,450). The camp has not commented.
