Police escorted the girl off Camp Emerson in Hinsdale, Massachusetts and a camp official falsely accused her and the boy of sexually provocative behavior, according to the lawsuit filed in Bridgeport Superior Court.
According to the lawsuit, on July 11 the girl attended a counselor-supervised activity at Camp Emerson called “court time,” which is held on the basketball court and provides time for male and female campers to interact.
The girl and a male camper reportedly took a moment behind the arts and crafts building to share a kiss, according to the suit.
According to the girl’s lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold, kissing is not against the rules at the camp.
But Arnold said the girl was publicly humiliated and expelled from the camp the next morning by the camp director, Sue Lein. Her parents were called and told to pick her up at the edge of camp, where she was escorted by an armed and uniformed police officer, Arnold said.
The relationship between the girl and boy “became the summer romance that most teens yearn for,” the lawsuit said.
“This summer romance made plaintiff Jane, a child of divorced parents who suffers from anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and treats with a psychiatrist and medications, and who always felt insecure and inferior to her peers, feel confident and beautiful for the very first time in her life,” the lawsuit said.
Male counselors at the camp had encouraged the boy to kiss the girl, according to the lawsuit. A camp handbook does not prohibit kissing, the suit said.
The lawsuit seeks more than $600,000 in damages, alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress, defamation and other claims.
Neither the girl nor her parents are named in the suit. The boy was also kicked out of camp.
Sue Lein, the camp director, declined to comment.
