Jewish Community Center On The Palisades

This is a review of its aquatics service and handling of my complaint by its management staff.
A particular lifeguard kept complaining that my 7 yr old son was splashing her in a very gruff and irritated manner. Mind you, he was the only one in the kiddie pool with me on two of these occasions and he was just swimming! He had just started learning how to swim and had pretty rough strokes still but certainly was not intentionally trying to splash anyone. I had also observed her yelling at other young children unnecessarily and acting like a "bully" of the pool. It is egregious to me that a swim staff would whine about incidentally getting some splashes of water by a kid just learning how to swim; isn't this just an occupational hazard? The manner in which she complained was even worse than the fact that she would complain about such a thing. Therefore, I wrote a letter of complaint to the management staff who basically responded that she acted appropriately. The management defended her behavior, even when she continued to harass (possibly because I wrote the letter of complaint) my son that he was splashing her while sitting a foot away from the edge of kiddie pool. What astounded me was the response of the JCC management including the CEO who saw no wrong in his staff. He had his COO call to tell me that I should try to see the swim guard's point of view along with a comment that I took away valuable time of her busy schedule to investigate. This kind of response is so out of line with a "family friendly" JCC that claims to be open to community at large. To make the matters worse, my son was "caught" peeing while showering in the poolside shower right next to a very cold bathroom. (He didn't want to go in the bathroom because it was too cold; I dealt with this privately immediately after the event.) That same lifeguard pointed fingers at my son and started lecturing at him right in front of me even after I acknowledged the incident. Even the CEO attempted to use the occasion to smear my son as if he deserved a public condemnation on his reply letter rather then address the issue of having an aquatics staff member who hates getting wet and yells at young children inappropriately. I was utterly disappointed by the negative atmosphere and worse response by the management staff after complaint was filed.