True Tales from the Corners of Our World

The Accusation: The mother's story

The Background: I heard this story from the camper’s mother (all names have been changed).

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couple of years ago, my young daughter told me she wanted to try a new sleepaway camp. We applied, but she was quickly turned down, so we then applied her to the camp she’d attended the year before. But by then it was late in the game, and they no longer had any room. My daughter ended up staying home for the summer while all of her friends went away.

The following year, I was determined not to repeat our mistake, and we applied to the camp she had attended two summers earlier. Since she was a returning camper and we were applying on time, we were sure she would get in. Imagine our shock and dismay when the camp turned us down.

I called the camp to ask why my daughter, a returning camper, had been rejected, but they didn’t give me a clear answer, so I asked her mechaneches at school to look into it.

She got back to me a few days later.

“Someone wrote in your daughter’s file that she wasn’t a well-behaved camper,” the mechaneches reported. “It says she was chutzpahdig, has too much access to technology, and listens to non-Jewish music.”