A famed Virginia summer camp “may never open” again in the wake of lawsuits alleging rampant sexual abuse of teenage girls who attended, according to the board chair of the group that runs the camp.
“It was closed in 2020, it’s closed this year. It may never open,” said
Lora Little, the chair of the board of the Association of Research and Enlightenment, A.R.E., in an interview on the program
Brian Ross Investigates on the Law&Crime Network.
It was the Virginia-based group’s first extensive public reaction to the lawsuit filed last month on behalf of former campers who alleged sexual assault and rape by male counselors, and “a dangerous cycle of continued sexual abuse and cover-ups that has lasted generations.”
Itâs advertised as a âspecial placeâ where children and adults of all ages can âexperience a different kind of vacation.â
Perched in the mountains of Southwest Virginia at Rural Retreat, A.R.E. Camp is where campers have been flocking to for decades to hike, swim, meditate, eat meals made from the organic vegetable garden, and sing around a campfire.
Itâs also where at least eight women say they were sexually assaulted and harassed when they were teenager campers, according to two lawsuits filed Wednesday in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
The men who abused them were adult counselors and other staff members who ranged in age from their late teens to 40s, said Ed Vasquez, a spokesman for the law firm representing the women.
It’s advertised as a “special place” where children and adults of all ages can “experience a different kind of vacation.” Perched in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia, A.R.E. Camp is
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