State sues to close Altadena camp where 6-year-old drowned

Photo Bradley Bermont for SCNG

By Bradley Bermont | bbermont@scng.com |

PUBLISHED: February 25, 2020 at 4:16 p.m. | UPDATED: February 25, 2020 at 11:00 p.m.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed an injunction against the Altadena-based Summerkids Camp and its director, Cara DiMassa, earlier this month, in a bid to prevent the camp from continuing to operate without a license.

Becerra’s office is representing the state’s Department of Social Services, which conducted two investigations into the camp and found it was operating without a day care license.

Months earlier, a 6-year-old girl drowned at the camp. She was found floating face down in the pool despite the presence of lifeguards and counselors. The two subsequent investigations were unrelated to the girl’s death.

In an email to this news group, DiMassa wrote the camp had received the lawsuit on Tuesday and representatives were still reviewing it. She said the camp didn’t have anything to add at the moment, “except to note that we have been working with the authorities to resolve this matter (daycare licensing) since it was first brought to our attention.”

After the first investigation, which involved an unannounced visit from officials, DiMassa told the Department of Social Services she would get the appropriate license and intended to cease operations until then. When officials returned for a second unannounced visit in December, they found the camp in the midst of its winter session, still unlicensed.

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“Summerkids remains unlicensed to this day and plans to resume its child day care programs this summer, despite being notified by the Department of Social Services that doing so would be unlawful,” the lawsuit filed Feb. 14 reads. “To protect the health and safety of the children,” state officials are asking the courts to prevent “Summerkids from continuing to operate an unlicensed day care facility.”

In the civil suit, state officials are requesting a judge to immediately suspend the camp’s operations before the case moves forward in earnest. If DiMassa and the camp are ultimately found liable, they could be fined $200 for every day the camp operated without a license, among other potential penalties.

DiMassa has managed the camp for years now; her parents founded it in 1978 and are still its owners.

The lawsuit “is by no means a relief, but it’s a critical step in the process,” said Doug Forbes, father of Roxie Forbes, the 6-year-old who drowned at Summerkids. “I would love to say we find joy in this, but what we really find is satisfaction.”

Forbes and his wife already filed their own lawsuit against the camp and have championed newly introduced legislation which would create more stringent requirements to operate a summer camp in California.

Right now, most camps in the state are subjected to few regulations. There’s no dedicated oversight board or licensing agency, but day camps like Summerkids are still required to be licensed as day care centers. That’s because it doesn’t technically qualify as a camp “because children are not kept for five days or more” away from their homes, the lawsuit says.

Some day camps, like those operated by Boy Scouts of America and the YMCA, are exempted by law from the day care licensing requirement.

Summerkids is not, the lawsuit says.

The camp oversees children as young as 3 years old in sessions ranging from two to 10 weeks in both summer and winter seasons.

The first investigation into the camp was spurred by an anonymous complaint filed by a parent who pulled her child and Chinese niece out of the camp after a staff member “made disparaging comments about her niece’s English language skills,” the suit says. The complaint was filed only six weeks after Roxie’s death.

Officials from the Department of Social Services stopped by for an unannounced visit in August and met with DiMassa, who later sent documentation to investigators, trying to prove that Summerkids was exempt from the day care licensing requirements.

She provided investigators with printouts from the camp’s website, a conditional use permit from the county, two unrelated inspection reports and an invoice from the American Camp Association — a nonprofit whose membership requires camps to meet a minimum safety threshold, though Summerkids is not a member.

“These documents did not establish that Summerkids was exempt from child daycare facility licensing requirements,” the suit reads. Officials passed this message along to DiMassa, who told them she would get the appropriate license and said operations at the camp have been stopped.

On Dec. 31, one week after getting a second complaint about Summerkids providing unlicensed care during its “Holiday Camp” session, officials stopped by for another unannounced visit. The camp was hosting 18 children; investigators determined, once again, the camp was operating as a child day care facility without a license.

Officials sent DiMassa and the camp a notice, saying they would be subjected civil penalties or criminal action if they continued operating without a license. They provided DiMassa with information explaining how to get licensed.

“To date, neither DiMassa nor Summerkids has applied … for a license to operate a child day care facility,” the suit says.

The camp has not yet responded to the lawsuit. A case management conference is expected in June.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to include a statement from Summerkids Director Cara DiMassa.