Claims discrimination
To the editor,
On July 21, 2004, many other parents and I dropped our children off at a state-licensed day care facility. This facility is located within the city limits. We were advised that the children would be going to the city pool. All children going had passes or money to enter the pool.
These children go on daily outings all summer (Monday and Friday—Whitefish beach, Tuesday and Thursday—Big Sky Waterslide, Wednesday is either Kalispell pool, Glacier Park or Columbia Falls pool). This program has been going on the last four summers with no incidents.
On this day, they chose to visit the Columbia Falls pool. This was their first visit this year. I believe Tracy was working the desk and mentioned to Jeff (manager) that a day care had arrived.
At this point, the two CPR- and first aid-certified day care employees and 13 children ranging in ages from four to 11 entered the building. Many of them were wearing flotation swimsuits or had life jackets in hand.
Jeff then advised the group his was uncomfortable with the adult/child ratio. The facility was well within state daycare ratios, which are 10 to one for ages four to six and 14 to one for ages seven to 12.
Jeff was then told that they were well within the state regulations. We, as parents, understand that Jeff's job at the pool would be a challenging one, to say the least—the thought of that many unsupervised children being sent there daily and the pool staff being completely responsible for the safety and behavior issues of these children, as you never see any adults with them.
Our problem came when a call was made to decide whether to allow this group in or not. Jeff was under the impression all 13 children standing there were under the age of five. I personally do not know how that assumption came up, because it was not the case. More than half of the children were five to 11 years old.
At this point, they realized the 2 1/2 hours that they had planned to spend at the pool was not going to happen. This day care has been there many times in the past years, and Jeff admitted that he had never heard of or seen any problems with the children in the care of this facility. As they were leaving, a lady with seven children entered the building and was allowed in, no questions asked.
I went to the day care to pick up my son and heard this, and I became very upset. I then asked the day care owner to go up there with me to talk with Jeff. But I first went to the fence near the lady with the seven kids and talked to her about her experience entering the pool. She said, "I didn't have any problems." She then said, "I have seven children with me, ages eight months to eleven. Some are kids of friends."
I then went to Jeff to talk to him about this. He had no explanation why it was okay to have seven children with her. He had no answer.
I can only conclude that my child's day care was discriminated against because of the sign on the side of their van. Jeff could not show any policy in writing with an adult/child ratio to follow. As we talked, a small child about five came to the pool with another child about eight to swim. Jeff told the older boy he had to keep an eye on him. What was their adult/child ratio? As we were leaving the pool, a lady who also runs a local day care pulled in to pick up three kids she had dropped off earlier. None were over the age of 10. Jeff had no explanation for this situation either. Again, I feel it is a game of pick and choose, or what's commonly known as discrimination. The parents who are bringing their children to the Plum Tree Day Care are very confident that their children will be very well cared for and supervised throughout the day, whether they're at the day care or on an outing. One of the many reasons we have selected this facility is for the supervised outings and the comfort we get by knowing that our children are safe, active and happy.
I hope the Columbia Falls pool staff will handle other situations that come up better than they did this one. We, as taxpayers, pay for that pool and should be allowed to use it, not be discriminated against.
Kris Knudsen, Pat Triplett, Michelle Berry, Bea McBurney, Kari Triplett, Trisha Merrill, Christine Spring, Tristian Martin, Marlett Jones, Leon Debora, Kathy Putnam, Mark Reiten, Julie Campbell, Dan McMasters, Tresha Folks, Dawn Secord and Perry Nelson