Lawsuit stems from when boys swam naked
“At indoor pools used exclusively by men, nude bathing should be required,” says a document published by the American Public Health Association in 1926. “At indoor pools used exclusively by women, bathing suits should be of the simplest type.”
GREENWICH — A lawsuit filed against the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich claims a sexual abuser used the clubs’ mandatory naked swimming rule in the 1970s and ’80s as an opportunity to victimize boys.
The then-Greenwich Boys’ Club wasn’t the only youth organization that once required boys to swim naked. While the practice may sound shocking or counterintuitive to children’s safety today, nude swimming at public indoor pools was once a federal recommendation.
“At indoor pools used exclusively by men, nude bathing should be required,” says a document published by the American Public Health Association in 1926. “At indoor pools used exclusively by women, bathing suits should be of the simplest type.”
The origins of nude swimming can be found well before the guideline was published. When the first indoor pool opened at the Brooklyn YMCA in
1885, the organization required men and boys to swim naked. The club said it banned swimsuits because the common wool suits of the time carried disease and bacteria, and fibers clogged the pool’s simple filtration system, according to multiple publications.
Other reasons given by administrators during the era included concerns about the expense of bathing suits, newspaper articles of the time indicate.
“Moneywise the wearing of suits is out of the question,” John Pawlowski Jr., president of the Board of Education in Appleton, Wis., said at a public meeting in 1961, according to an article published by the Appleton Press at the time. “It would mean an investment of $2,000 to $3,000.”
Others in favor of naked swimming said the practice prepared boys for adulthood.
“Physical education considers that this experience is a good one for later life, for example, the armed services, where the disregard for privacy is real and serious,” another man said in the story.
After the American Public Health Association published its recommended swimming regulations in
1926, nearly all Boys’ Clubs of America, YMCAs and public schools in the nation followed or encouraged them, a practice that lasted for many years, historical documents and newspaper archives indicate.
“At no time will suits be worn in the pool and boys will not need them any time during the entire program,” says a brief published about a YMCA swimming class in Bridgeport’s Port News in March 1959.
Many places adopted the practice before the 1926 decree. The April 1922 issue of the Boys’ Workers Round Table, published by the organization that ran all Boys’ Clubs in the nation at the time, ran multiple photographs of naked boys swimming at the Worcester, Mass., Boys’ Club. The same publication in 1923 featured a photograph of nude boys swimming at a pond at the Springfield, Mass., Boys’ Club farm camp.
Images of naked adolescent boys swimming appeared in national publications, including Life Magazine. Newspapers such as the New York Times detailed swim meets in sports stories, specifically mentioning the swimmers’ nudity.
Boys who refused to swim naked were ostracized by other boys and sometimes coaches or instructors, documents and videos show. Syndicated columnist Ann Landers chided a boy who wrote to ask her advice about his reluctance to swim naked in front of his peers.
“You need to talk to a school counselor and learn why you are so uptight about being seen naked,” she wrote in a 1974 column. “If you look around you’ll find the vast majority of the guys who are showering are not in the least bit selfconscious.”
The practice became a kind of rite-of-passage for young men, Richard Senelick wrote in The Atlantic in 2014.
“Many men don’t speak up about their desire for privacy in fear that they will be mocked for not being ‘man enough,’” he wrote. “There is the assumption that men bond by swimming or showering together in the nude, but I can assure you that, given a choice, we would have rather worn a bathing suit and showered in a stall.”
Naked swimming rules weren’t met with much dissent, newspaper archives show. But eventually attitudes began to change.
The 1961 article in the Appleton Post noted more than 370 people signed a petition demanding the school board change its nude swimming mandate.
One woman was quoted as saying boys were “affected morally, physically and psychologically by forcing them to swim nude.”
Even though most youth organizations parted with the rule around the 1960s, according to numerous media reports, the Greenwich Boys’ Club continued to implement naked swimming until at least the early 1980s, a lawsuit filed against the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich says.
“At that time, it was custom that younger Boys’ Club members swam naked while in the pool, on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summertime after outings to Island Beach or Tod’s Point Beach,” the lawsuit complaint says.
It was also common for older boys to swim clothed with the naked younger boys, per the lawsuit, and they regularly “horseplayed” during these swims.
The five plaintiffs in the case say counselor Andrew Atkinson sexually abused them at the Greenwich club in the 1970s and ’80s, including at least one in the swimming pool.
“During these summertime naked swimming experiences ... (a 6-year-old victim) regularly came into contact with (his alleged abuser), who, as an older boy, was wearing a bathing suit,” the complaint says. “(The young boy), while naked and in the pool, was molested, fondled and groped by Atkinson. These incidents of sexual assault were masked by the horseplay.”
In an interview last month, Atkinson, now 54, denied abusing anybody.
Attorneys for the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich declined to comment about the allegations of nude swimming at the facility in the past. Administrators told Greenwich Time previously the safety of the children they serve is the main priority of the organization.
Representatives from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America declined to comment on pending litigation, but said the organization recognizes the pain victims of child sexual abuse have suffered.
“We understand time does not take away any pain inflicted on victims and their families,” the statement says. “We respect those who have brought forward these extremely serious concerns. It is our aim to have the lawsuit resolved in a manner that provides support and comfort to the victims and their families.”