Missing campers, falsified documents revealed in state’s camp investigation

Problems that arose at a Connecticut weight-loss camp before it closed in July included missing campers and falsified documents, newly released investigative records indicate.

After weeks of investigations, a witness list 34 people deep, and pages upon pages of interviews and inspection notes, a fuller picture of the goings-on at Camp Shane — informed by state documents obtained by Hearst Connecticut through a Freedom of Information Act request — is taking shape.

The state document release included an investigation narrative, interview summaries, a case summary, a license surrender affidavit, and the Notice of Proposed Licensure Action and Statement of Charges sent to camp owner David Ettenberg.

The weight-loss camp located at the South Kent School abruptly shuttered on July 13, and surrendered its 11-day-old license on Aug. 23, at which point the Office of Early Childhood and Department of Children and Families terminated their joint investigation. The investigation was announced in July after the camp closed its doors, but the OEC officially launched its investigation on July 8.

Since Ettenberg legally surrendered the license prior to the completion of the state investigation, violations that would be

substantiated were not formally presented to the owner, the investigation summary explained.

In the affidavit surrendering his license, Ettenberg denies all charges set forth, but agreed that if he tried to reinstate or obtain a new license from the agency in the future, it would mean that the allegations “would be deemed true.”

Ettenberg has not responded

to multiple requests for comment since mid-July when he said he shut camp down due to staffing issues.

The allegations in the records also include:

A camper sleeping on a common area couch.

Campers walking around unsupervised at night and in lightning storms, and who were encouraged to work out

until they vomited.

Counselors leaving campers unsupervised to “hang out” and “party” in the lounge.

A counselor who yelled at and threatened to fight a camper.

Falsified medication administration training documents presented to the state.

Inappropriate “comments of a sexual nature”

by a male camper toward a female camper.

Multiple reports of campers being bullied.

And the day before camp officially shut down, an 8-year-old girl suffered a serious head injury at camp. Her parents were leaving to pick her up when they got the phone call.

The OEC investigation summary states that “multiple families, many from

out of state, reported trying to contact the camp about concerns with their child and not receiving any response via email, text or phone for extended periods of time.”

Medical oversight concerns

The most continuously reported investigation concerns, which were

H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media The South Kent School, a boys boarding school in South Kent, had been home to Camp Shane until the weight-loss camp abruptly shuttered on July 13 and surrendered its 11-day-old license on Aug. 23.