Devilish Treatment at Christian Camp?

[o_0]

AUGUST 17--When Ronald and Jill Losoya sent their 11-year-old son to Michigan's Camp Michawana, they expected the boy's summer stay would be a "positive, Christian-based experience." In fact, the camp itself notes that "Christ is first" and that it operates as "an arm of the local church in which a Bible-centered programŠis used to develop camper spirituality." However, according to the below federal lawsuit, things didn't work out that way for young Ezekiel Losoya. Instead, the boy's parents allege in their August 8 complaint, he was subjected to an assortment of "inhumane, degrading, and criminal conduct" during a one-week stay in the summer of 2003. Among 19 separate indignities cited in the Losoyas's complaint, Ezekiel had to endure wedgies, was "kicked in the privates," had his camera smashed, got dunked headfirst in a toilet, and was tied to a tether ball pole. The lawsuit, which does not specify monetary damages beyond $75,000, contends that Ezekiel was tormented by fellow campers and Michawana counselors. As a result of the camp's negligence, the Losoyas charge, Ezekiel has suffered hurt feelings, mental anguish, and "disruption of his faith in Christ and loss of his camera."

You can see a list of things they did here.

It simply disgusts me that children could be this cruel. Absolutely disgusts me. Not only was it name-calling, and bullying, but breaking his camera, urinating on him and his bear and interrupting his medically-required naps???

._. What has our world come to?

[cat1205123]

Holy. Smurf.

I mean seriously - All this, and at a church camp too? And it says the councilors had something to do with it too! Meh. I'm...appalled.

[Bangel]

Not meaning to offend anyone here, but in my experience with Christian camps/schools... it's always the people you expect to be good that are vicious. I think that there's a tendancy for Christian children to be bad because their parents expect them to put lots of their effort and energy in the Church, and when you're an eleven year old child, you just don't want to, so you end up rebelling. Not marking everyone with the same brush, that's just what I've seen. Sad thing though, the poor child.

[VeraX]

Thats sick. I was going to say that if I was his (not Ezekiel, the bad kids) fathers I would er.. urinate on the kids, but then I thought better of it.
Thats just sick.


And oh look, I ended up saying it anyways. Whoopsadaisies.

[Breakthrough]

It amazes me how sick this is. Seriously.

I've never been able to see how anybody could even consider doing something this cruel. Then again, I'm the type of person who never does things that can possibly get me in trouble...but still. This is sick.

[Divine]

Ack.

That's just cruel. I can't believe people can be this cruel to one another. Are people that cold-blooded? (sorry, it's a chinese expression)

[shapu]

Cold-blooded means the same here as there, I assure you.

Hey, kids are cruel. It's rough, but it shouldn't surprise anyone who's been bullied, made fun of, or pushed around. It's not just at Christian camps - you see it at public schools, in Christian schools (the movie Saved is far closer to the truth in a lot of cases than some might care to admit), secular private schools, boot camps for misbehaving kids, even special-education programs.

It's just more of a shocker, more of a media grabber, if it happens somewhere that "it's not supposed to."

[Fiddelysquat]

Few breeds of animals are as adept at singling out and terrorizing the weak as the average human child. It sickens me to see how heartless and cruel children can be.

[Christopher]

Christian camps here just try to wear you down on a diet of starch and steamed thingies...

[Fiddelysquat]

Christian camps here just try to wear you down on a diet of starch and steamed thingies...

All camps do that.

[Christopher]

Christian camps here just try to wear you down on a diet of starch and steamed thingies...

All camps do that.

Every single one of them has been Christian

[Fiddelysquat]

Christian camps here just try to wear you down on a diet of starch and steamed thingies...

All camps do that.

Every single one of them has been Christian

I'd appreciate it if you stopped making generalizations about Christian people/organizations since it's not very kind and I really don't want to have to eventually lock this thread.

[ChromeFox]

You ain't seen nothing yet. There are tons of articles and some really fascinating personal accounts about these types of kiddie boot camps:

http://www.nospank.net/boot.htm

It was actually an article in YM Magazine (during the few times where it's actually relevant and informative) about a religious boarding school called Mountain Park that fired up my interest, but I went on to read about more. Some of them are really heartbreaking, like the story of 16-year-old Michelle Sutton, who died of dehydration on a forced hike while camp counselors told others not to give her water and joked that her parched mouth was so white that "it looks like you've been eating marshmallows." After she died (or, more accurately, was murdered), her best friend, whom she convinced to join the wilderness camp with her, had to complete the 60-day camp. Personally, I would have said "Screw this!" if my best friend had been negligently murdered at a boarding school camp.

I recommend reading this:

http://www.nospank.net/n-n71r.htm

And here's a really nicely written account of a girl who attended a place called Casa by the Sea:

http://www.nospank.net/chambard.htm

[Christopher]

I'd appreciate it if you stopped making generalizations about Christian people/organizations since it's not very kind and I really don't want to have to eventually lock this thread.

I'm not making a generalization at all, I'm talking about my own education and experiance (hence the 'here') which involved a camp every single year for about 7 years, each at a different place, all of em were christian camps. Though they were horrible, they don't hold a candle to these ones.

[Fiddelysquat]

I'm not making a generalization at all, I'm talking about my own education and experiance (hence the 'here') which involved a camp every single year for about 7 years, each at a different place, all of em were christian camps. Though they were horrible, they don't hold a candle to these ones.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Not all Christian camps are bad (I've been to one or two that are actually quite nice), but I hated the one I went to two years ago. They claimed I was going to hell because I was Catholic and made us read all this rubbish on chastity. I'm not against chastity, but saying that a girl who wears a sleeveless shirt is "inviting sin into her life" is ridiculous.