A mother is suing a YMCA in Ohio for excluding her son with Down syndrome from summer camp.
Denise Watts filed the lawsuit at a district court in Cincinnati, citing that the Great Miami Valley YMCA, which is based in Butler County, violated that Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act for failing to accommodate her 6-year-old son, Steven, to its programs. She is seeking a change in the policy of the YMCA so that they could provide "reasonable accommodations" as well as compensation for damages.
Watts said that she asked YMCA to allow Steven at summer camp since the boy expressed his desire to join the program. "Each time they just said no, that it wasn't safe, the environment wasn't safe," she told NBC News. "It's more like he's a liability, but that's not my fault."
Steven learned that his classmates at the local public school, where he had just finished kindergarten, were going to there and his mother wanted him to experience regular summer camp. But instead, they were told by YMCA that Steven could attend Camp Campbell Gard, a summer camp for children with disabilities. The YMCA said their program was geared for "typically developing children," the Dayton Daily News reported.
"Steven shuts down when he's segregated with just children with disabilities," the Watts' attorney, Richard Ganulin, said via NBC News. "Some people with disabilities are very, very medically fragile and very disabled, and Steven doesn't respond well when he's segregated with just individuals with disabilities."
Upon learning about the lawsuit, lawyers for the YMCA said their client was "surprised and disappointed."
"Ms. Watts just last week enrolled Steven in summer camp at Camp Campbell Gard, and the YMCA understood that Ms. Watts had agreed that Camp Campbell Gard was the only safe summer camp alternative for Steven," said Attorney Curtis L. Cornett via Dayton Daily News.
The YMCA, meanwhile, reiterated that they couldn't ensure Steven's safety in the summer program due to lack of staff with proper training to handle children with disability.
But Kevin Truitt, a lawyer for the Disability Rights Ohio organization said this is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. "He has the right to be in an integrated program for children without disabilities. They have to accommodate his needs to ensure he has the same access to this program as any other child," Truitt said, according to NBC News.
