STILL WAITING
During an investigative review, Elena Matyas sits at the small Summerkids pool where daughter Roxie drowned. (Photo: Doug Forbes)
By Doug Forbes
Almost 10 months later, and we are still waiting. Will we receive a note from a Summerkids counselor explaining what actually happened at the Summerkids pool and why? Will someone from the camp ever say that he or she is sorry for our loss? Will an email from former assistant camp director Jaimi Harrison be waiting in our inbox tomorrow explaining why she actually left Summerkids and what the truth is about how Roxie drowned?
A compassionate, effervescent 6-year-old girl with a bright future died while in their care, and the camp community expresses utter indifference. Not once has the DiMassa family (owner-operators) acknowledged Roxie by name, dismissing her priceless life as “an incident in the pool.”
Just think about how inhumane that is.
What were Roxie’s last minutes like? What was she playing? Who was she with? And – most painfully – why didn’t anyone help her? Why didn’t Hank Rainey—her buddy counselor who was in the pool—help her? What was he doing that he felt justified to ignore Roxie for so long.
And then you have Rainey’s mother who dismissed Roxie as a burden. She called Roxie “that girl” and said her son was the victim—the same remorseless son who ran around town Instagramming friends the day Roxie died. The same son who urinated on a Black-owned restaurant weeks later and thought it was funny enough to post a photo of the crime on Instagram. The same son who excused his accountability again and again during a taped interview with detectives.
Who are these people?
It is also heartbreaking that only a handful of parents from Summerkids have acknowledged Roxie’s death. Why? Why have they made me and us feel like outcasts, like we put a damper on their camp experience. This reality is excrutiating.
Roxie did not die of anything other than a preventable drowning due to neglect. She did not die of any affliction, any heart condition, any sickness. She drowned, because Rainey and other counselors ignored her and because DiMassa runs a camp where she thinks it appropriate to lie to detectives and coverup the circumstances of killing a child.
While we endure day after day of despair, those responsible for Roxie’s death go on living their lives seemingly unaffected. We wake each morning to face the hopeless struggle with the unhealable hole in our hearts and agonizing absence in our home. How do we withstand this injustice?
Roxie loved to love. Her infectious smile and laugh were joyful. I was in awe of her empathy. She looked out for her friends and always offered a nudge of encouragement or gentle hug when someone was unsettled.
We need her hugs now more than ever. At this pivotal time in our history, we have witnessed unprecedented compassion, empathy and courage in the face of a pandemic. Yet, accountability for Roxie’s death and compassion for our loss are remarkably absent from those who spent her last minutes on earth with her.
How can this be? How can these people be so cruel? And when will someone, anyone, from Summerkids finally step forward to do the right thing, to tell the truth once and for all and to relieve us of at least some of the agony associated with all of our unknowns?
Probably never.