Drowning at Pasadena Tom Sawyer Camp Revealed
NOTE: Meow Meow Foundation believes camps must be held to the highest standards in matters that involve their children’s health and safety. Thereby, the foundation will constantly deliver a multitude of vital news and information that helps adults and communities make educated decisions.
According to an ongoing investigation by Meow Meow Foundation, a seven-year-old boy drowned at Pasadena’s popular Tom Sawyer Camp in 2008, yet the story went largely untold, until now.
MMF principals Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas said they met with TSC owner-operators Sarah and Guy Fish and their COO Rick Benfield five months ago to discuss their aquatics program and to gain insight into their overall safety protocol.
However, the three TSC principals were primarily concerned about the effects of MMF’s efforts to introduce legislation that would mandate comprehensive oversight for camps like theirs, Forbes said.
“There we were, pouring our hearts out about our daughter’s recent preventable drowning, being fully transparent and trusting with strangers,” Forbes said, “and yet they never mentioned the drowning that took place at their own camp.”
Other than a few minor details shared by a MMF board member, Forbes said he and Matyas knew very little about the drowning before the meeting. They finally had to raise the issue since nobody else did. He said that Sarah Fish did not hold herself or the camp accountable but instead said the outcome would have been far worse were it not for the efforts of her TSC lifeguards.
Forbes and Matyas said they asked why TSC lifeguards allowed the boy to drown in the first place, to which Fish continued to focus on the CPR efforts of the lifeguards. Fish and her husband would never directly answer the question, Forbes said.
Matyas said that MMF was therefore forced to conduct its own investigation. Accountability is a core component of the foundation’s mission, whether it be related to camp safety or water safety. “As long as adults fail to hold themselves accountable in these situations, children will remain in harm’s way,” she said.
According to documents the foundation obtained, the drowning was severe enough that the boy wound up in a coma. Fortunately, he regained consciousness, stabilized and was eventually able enough to be released after a considerable hospital stay.
Documents also revealed that, when questioned by authorities, the boy did not remember anything about the drowning or the hospital stay. Although police reports refer to “non-fatal drowning,” The World Health Organization and other health and medical entities only recognize such incidents as “drownings” and do not acknowledge any other terminology such as “near drowning” or “dry drowning.”
MMF is currently combing through more than 800 pages of documents and photos, speaking with a variety of parties and trying to ascertain how two camp drownings could happen within such close proximity—the other drowning having occurred at Summerkids camp in neighboring Altadena.
Forbes and Matyas said they were also significantly bothered by how the story of this drowning did not receive much media attention or public scrutiny. The couple said they had to search through library microfiche to find two minor stories about the drowning. They have also read about a considerable number of preventable deaths and catastrophic injuries as well as sex crimes that occur at camps.
Instead of discussing the details and outcomes of their drowning, Tom Sawyer Camp officials were focused on the American Camp Association and the importance of including the organization in any future camp legislation, Matyas said. According to the Tom Sawyer Camp website, they are a “proud member of the ACA and rigorously follow their safety standards and guidelines.”
Forbes said, “Most parents don’t know that the ACA has 255 standards but only 15 percent of them are required for accreditation. This is unacceptable, if not outrageous.” Forbes said that ACA president Tom Rosenberg, Benfield, Barankin and other ACA officials did not dispute this fact when confronted. The ACA also does not disclose to parents what standards camps choose to ignore.
Tom Sawyer Camp’s owner-operator Sarah Fish was an ACA board member and COO Rick Benfield was president of ACA SoCal/Hawaii. Benfield continues to lobby for the ACA with lobbyist Cathy Barankin of Sacramento Advocacy. Benfield and Barankin know that Forbes and Matyas will introduce camp oversight legislation within a week.
However, Forbes and Matyas said they recently discovered that Benfield, Barankin and ACA Western Region Director Michele Branconier, are introducing their own camp legislation on behalf of the ACA in an apparent attempt to eclipse the bill which Forbes and Matyas have been working on since their daughter drowned at camp.
More details of the Tom Sawyer Camp drowning will be revealed within a week.