HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. (AP) — Members and officials of a private swimming pool in a predominantly white Philadelphia suburb reacted to a visiting group of minority children by asking them not to return and pulling other kids out of the water, a day camp director said, and the state is investigating.

The Creative Steps camp in northeast Philadelphia had contracted for the 65 children at the day camp to go each Monday afternoon to The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, camp director Alethea Wright said Thursday. But shortly after they arrived June 29, she said, some black and Hispanic children reported hearing racial comments.

"A couple of the children ran down saying, 'Miss Wright, Miss Wright, they're up there saying, "What are those black kids doing here?'''" she said.

The gated club is on a leafy hillside in a village that straddles two townships with overwhelmingly white populations. It says it has a diverse, multiethnic membership.

Wright said she went to talk to a group of members at the top of the hill and heard one woman say she would see to it that the group, made of up of children in kindergarten through seventh grade, did not return.

"Some of the members began pulling their children out of the pool and were standing around with their arms folded," Wright said. "Only three members left their children in the pool with us."

Several days later, the club refunded the camp's $1,950 without explanation, said Wright, who added that some parents are "weighing their options" on legal action.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission will immediately investigate, chairman Stephen A. Glassman said Thursday.

"Allegedly, this group was denied the use of a pool based on their race," Glassman said. "If the allegations prove to be true, this is illegal discrimination."

The investigation was requested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., issued a statement calling the allegations "extremely disturbing" and said he was looking into the matter.

The United States' highest-profile black swimmer, Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones, said "hearing about what's happened to these 65 kids is both disturbing and appalling."

Chuck Wielgus, executive director of USA Swimming, the governing body for the U.S. swim team, was stunned at the accusations.

"This is the sort of thing you'd hear about in 1966, during the height of the civil rights movement, not in 2009, and not in the City of Brotherly Love, of all places," he said.

Club president John Duesler told Philadelphia television station WTXF that several club members complained because the children "fundamentally changed the atmosphere" at the pool but that the complaints didn't involve race.

In a statement released on its Web site Thursday afternoon, the club called the allegations of racial discrimination "completely untrue" and claimed overcrowding from more than one outside camp was the problem.

"We had originally agreed to invite the camps to use our facility, knowing full well that the children from the camps were from multiethnic backgrounds," it said. "Unfortunately, we quickly learned that we underestimated the capacity of our facilities and realized that we could not accommodate the number of children from these camps."

The club said it "deplores discrimination."

"Whatever comments may or may not have been made by an individual member is an opinion not shared by The Valley Club Board," it said.

Amy Goldman said she's been a member of the club for two years. She said the pool wasn't particularly crowded and the children from Creative Steps were "well behaved and respectful."

She said there had been black members at the club in the past, though she couldn't remember seeing any this year.

The club appeared closed Thursday afternoon, and the guard .....

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Jiggy5
I normally dismiss you as not being relevant.
Don't attack children!!

by   
RaaSaa
July 10, 2009, 12:33 pm
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This proves to me, a veteran of the United States Marines Gulf War Era, that no matter how time changes, the mind set of ignorant people stay the same. And the only way these racist anglocans can cope is out of total chaos.

by   
Osiris06
July 10, 2009, 11:55 am
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Jiggy5 - you are naive - they paid to be able to swim. When they saw their ethnicity it all changed. You do not know them calling them Jr thugs get off this web site. The came yelling and cursing yea right.

by   
Von1956
July 10, 2009, 11:16 am
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"fundamentally changed the atmosphere" yea... they came yelling and cheering and having fun because it was probably the first time some of them had the experience of being in a nice, clean, safe pool; not like the club members kids who are used to that kind of daily recreation. i hope the kids do get the chance to swim more this summer.

by   
Nepatsgirl
July 10, 2009, 9:52 am
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This is a private club, and they can admit or exclude whomever they please. You can't tell me for a moment that those Jr. thugs didn't come running, yelling, cursing, and exhibiting standard minority behavior in an otherwise sedate environment. Come on peeps open your eyes.

by   
Jiggy5
July 10, 2009, 9:13 am
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Surprised that this type of racist still exist? No, not me. Education goes a long way. I think we need to educate those white members who made the derogatory comment that black skin does not liquidate in the water. They and their children still would have been white when they got out of the pool filled with Black children. Perhaps the only change would have been the content of their character.

by   
Denise723
July 10, 2009, 9:08 am
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After reading this story it is so heart breaking to think that this type of discrimination is still happening in 2009. The statement issued by the Club was a "joke" and the officials in charge need to own up to the actions of their members and their club. These were children trying to enjoy an outing with their camp. These were children with feelings and they were hurt by this incident.

by   
Sandykhill
July 10, 2009, 8:43 am
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"fundamentally changed the atmosphere"
no longer lilly white

by   
RaaSaa
July 10, 2009, 8:36 am
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