"I am writing to inform you of an incident that took place in camp this
past Thursday concerning improper contact with a camper. Fortunately, I
was immediately notified by the camper. My senior staff and I
immediately launched our established plan-of-action which included
safeguarding the affected camper, preventing the staff member from
leaving camp premises, verifying the facts, and notifying law
enforcement and the affected camper’s parents."
Originally published at 10:13 pm CDT 7-14-2013
Camp Dora Golding sent the following email to parents about the alleged abuse at the camp.
The abuse took place Wednesday night, the arrest was made Thursday, the arraignment was Friday morning, news reports began being published locally on Friday and nationally by Failedmessiah.com Saturday night.
The camp's email was sent out Sunday night:
Dear Parents,
Camp Dora Golding works year-round to ensure a fun-filled, memorable summer for each of our over 1000 campers. We work equally hard to ensure their safety and security.
I am writing to inform you of an incident that took place in camp this past Thursday concerning improper contact with a camper. Fortunately, I was immediately notified by the camper. My senior staff and I immediately launched our established plan-of-action which included safeguarding the affected camper, preventing the staff member from leaving camp premises, verifying the facts, and notifying law enforcement and the affected camper’s parents.
Within several hours, the staff member was arrested by the authorities and taken off camp grounds. We are of course completely cooperating with the authorities to assist their investigation in every possible way.
At this point, we have no reason to believe that any other campers were involved or in any way affected. We are in consultation with leading mental health professionals and social service agencies, and prepared to offer appropriate support and counseling to our staff, campers and parents, if needed. Through this consultation, it was decided not to alarm over 600 unknowing campers. Certainly, if you feel the need to speak to your son to allay your fears, we can have him call you.
For more than a decade, (even before recently publicized stories of abuse in the Orthodox community), our staff orientation included specific training to deal with improper contact and conduct between staff and campers. We have a zero tolerance policy towards any improper behavior and, as demonstrated by recent events, are ready to follow through whenever necessary. I am proud of my staff, which acted quickly, properly and responsibly.
Our established action plan includes contacting all our campers’ parents as soon as possible, however, before our earliest opportunity to properly do so; the incident was reported in a local Pennsylvania newspaper and quickly spread online. We regret that some parents had to learn of this story from media and online sources before hearing it directly from the camp.
If further relevant information becomes available, we will share it with you to the greatest extent possible. I am well aware that such incidents tend to generate rumors and unintended inaccuracies. Should you have any questions or concerns, I welcome the discussion, and ask that you feel free to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Alex Gold
Based on what I reported earlier today, what Alex Gold did not tell parents is that the
camp tried to send the counselor, Chisdai Ben-Porat (pictured at right), who committed the alleged sexual abuse home to Canada.
When police were notified by a person who is not a camp employee that the camp was helping the counselor flee, they returned and arrested the counselor.
Also note that while Gold says that the camp "immediately launched our established plan-of-action which included safeguarding the affected camper, preventing the staff member from leaving camp premises, verifying the facts, and notifying law enforcement and the affected camper’s parents" after being told about the alleged abuse, he does not specify when the parents were notified or how long it took the camp to call police after it was told about the alleged abuse.
As of this morning, I've been told the alleged victim's parents had not yet been told the alleged abuse took place.
Past that, to wait 3 1/2 days to tell parents about the alleged abuse is, I think, inexcusable. On that basis alone, I would pull any children in my care out of that camp immediately.
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