is this the kind of camp counselor you want for your kids?

Isaak Momsen was 20 when someone snapped the above photo of him. He was a camp also a counselor at Summerkids, the Altadena, California, recreational child care facility commonly known as a summer camp.

Summerkids was the same facility responsible for killing our 6-year-old daughter Roxie. She drowned when counselors ignored her to death in the small facility pool.

Momsen’s Instagram page is rife with photos of him slugging back shots and beers, smoking weed, exchanging clever cheeky about his time at Summerkids, such as the one below.

In fact, Momsen is seen here trading barbs with Joseph Natalizio (joenat3456), a 30-year-old Summerkids counselor and teacher who writes, “Ah shit timmys crying again. Whose turn is it?!” Natalizio ran from the scene when Roxie died on his watch.

Although Momsen was not apparently at the small Summerkids pool when counselors ignored Roxie to death, the above photo of him apparently defines what Momsen thinks about good judgment. He gets drunk poolside and publicly pronounces how proud he is to do so, despite having to report to Summerkids early the next morning to take care of children, and presumably, at some point, to guard very young lives at the over-crowded pool.

Momsen apparently returned to Summerkids this past summer of 2021, as a 23-year-old counselor who continues to post photos of his latest binge-drinking triumphs.

Perhaps most important to understand, Summerkids Co-owner and Director Cara DiMassa hired Momsen and all counselors. She has been one of Momsen’s Instagram followers. In fact, she admittedly followed numerous young Summerkids counselors, like Hank Rainey.

Hank is the son of Jim Rainey. Jim worked with DiMassa at the Los Angeles Times — nepotism runs deep at Summerkids. Hank was also Roxie’s buddy counselor in the pool when he and others ignored her to death.

Before Hank made his Instagram page private, his photos ranged from urinating on a black-owned restaurant to posting a jovial photo of himself with a clever caption the day after Roxie died. Apparently, Jim Rainey and his wife Alison think that’s just boys being boys, according to Alison’s own recorded words.

And what did DiMassa do about her party-loving counselors complicit in killing a kid? Nothing, of course.

DiMassa’s concept of good judgment is ostensibly what is on trial.

DiMassa is a 50-year-old mother of two daughters, both of whom attend Summerkids. DiMassa was certainly privy to what counselors like Momsen and Rainey were up to on social platforms. Her readily apparent attitude: “So what?”

And then June 28, 2019 happened — a little girl dies because a camp director enabled the death. And, again, DiMassa’s response: “So what? Nothing to see here.”

After all, DiMassa kept the camp open the entire day Roxie drowned, despite traumatized children who saw a little girl die right before their eyes. Incidentally, she also kept our tuition payment for three months until she was forced to refund it.

In fact, DiMassa kept the camp open every day thereafter. She covered up the circumstances surrounding Roxie’s death. And, she never reprimanded or even retrained people like Rainey.

DiMassa was responsible for killing Roxie, because she chose to operate a child care facility like she chooses to deal with accountability. In fact, she put another child in the hospital with a serious injury only weeks after killing Roxie.

And four days after that EMS call, EMS apparently responded to another Summerkids call, according to fire department records.

As it turns out, there were at least eight EMS calls related to Summerkids in only three seasons.

As we now know, DiMassa also spearheaded a scheme that afforded Momsen and Rainey fake lifeguard certifications. Dozens of counselors spent a few hours in a pool with an American Red Cross instructor and went home the same day as fully certified lifeguards and water safety instructors.

Anyone with an elementary school education knows that’s not how it works.

We also now know that the the Red Cross instructor — the one whom DiMassa and her father hired — was also a fake. He fraudulently certified himself like he fraudulently certified dozens of Summerkids counselors who did not undergo requisite training or testing.

DiMassa and the Red Cross are responsible. DiMassa saved time and money by not properly training employees to watch little children in her over-crowded pool. The Red Cross chalked up more revenue at less of an investment in critical oversight.

Documents and admissions spell it all out. And soon enough, they’ll be as public as DiMassa’s support for counselors who brag about how drunk they got the night before she puts them back in charge of children in her pool.

We have had two years to reflect upon what happened to our daughter at Summerkids — how a family named the DiMassas and a massive health and safety organization without fundamental checks and balances cultivated a culture of lethal irresponsibility.

The DiMassas also covered up the truth by blaming Roxie for her own drowning.

It’s true. Their attorney Margaret Holm — the same woman who defended USA Gymnastics against the myriad girls and women whom Larry Nassar raped — said in publicly available court documents that Roxie’s death was essentially of her own doing.

In a few short months, families will begin to sign-up their kids for camps. That’s because camps have fast become as competitive as private schools.

But instead of making a decision based on what you hear from your friends or from camp owner-operators themselves, make sure you actually see and learn about who will be in charge of your children and why you should trust them.

Ask about social media policies. Ask about references and background checks. Ask about how camp owners vet counselor candidates, how they train them, what they expect of their public-facing comportment. Show them the photo of Momsen and ask them what they think about him — an underage camp counselor — getting drunk poolside in his boxers while his 50-year-old camp director/boss apparently condones such behavior, despite being in charge of 900 children, some as young as three.

Sadly, these are not exceptions. Camps across the country condone such behavior if not far worse. It’s why sexual assault and other abuse persists in droves at facilities with owner-operators who prioritize profiteering over proper protocols.

In fact, take a look at these photos of camp counselors at a camp known for raping children and covering up the circumstances, just as Summerkids covered up the circumstances of Roxie’s killing.

While camps should be fun and games, protecting your children from harm should not.