I-Team 8: Camp Caution

CENTRAL INDIANA (WISH) - Sometimes sending your child off to summer camp can be daunting. Parents hope that homesickness is the only real issue a child faces. They shouldn't have to worry about their child's safety. But I-Team 8 discovered that the State of Indiana is not requiring something that many other states mandate to keep criminals out of summer camps.

In this investigation we learned Indiana is not nearly as strict as other states in forcing licensed camps to do background checks. But we also learned there are plenty of questions you can ask the camps where you send your children.

While incidents of abuse or sexual misconduct are rare, they do happen. One alleged incident happened in May at a camp outside Fort Wayne. 38-year-old Tara Brandon was the director of Camp Whitley near Columbia City when she was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct involving a male camp counselor. Prosecutors say it happened over two summers beginning when the boy was 15.

The case prompted I-Team 8 to look into how rigorously camps conduct background checks on employees.

We visited Flat Rock River YMCA camp in Decatur County. It's a place where young people learn to be young leaders from camp counselors who lead by example.

"The counselors are all screened by our staff, our professional year-round staff," says camp director Steve Heiney. "They interview them, they find most of them through colleges and a lot of the counselors were campers themselves, they've grown up, so we know them pretty well."

Flat Rock does do background checks on employees. But even though most summer camps must be licensed through Indiana's State Department of Health, there's no law requiring criminal background checks. It means the state sees camps as more of a public health issue, less of a public safety issue.

Paul Barada of Rushville, Indiana based Barada and Associates thinks every parent ought to be concerned. Background and reference checking is his job. He says potential employers often make the mistake of doing statewide background checks instead of more expensive national background checks.

"(Camps need) to see if the person has been convicted of a felony, see if they're on a sex offender registry," says Barada. "You just don't want people in camps where kids are in a vulnerable situation to be exposed to that kind of risk."

21 out of 50 states require background checks for potential employees. Indiana doesn't. In checking surrounding states we learned Michigan and Ohio require checks, while Illinois and Kentucky don't

So what's a parent to do?

"First of all I think they need to look at the camp's facilities, their safety issues, how are parents going to know that their kids are safe?," asks Paige Huber of Indianapolis, whose 11-year-old son Will just came home from the Flat Rock River YMCA camp.

But she was surprised to learn that Indiana does not require background checks for camp employees. "Yes, yeah, absolutely, I didn't know that," admits Huber.

Flat Rock conducts its own statewide background check and checks other states if the employee is from outside Indiana.

"We do the background check, they're drug tested," says Heiney. "And we feel good about them all."

The American Camp Association (ACA) is based in Indiana and provides accreditation for 26-hundred camps across the country. For years the organization has lobbied for a nationwide and uniform background checking process. Because not only do the campers come from other states, criminals cross state lines too. Peg Smith is the chief executive officer of the ACA.

"What you're really looking for when the state is not mandating a criminal background check you want a really comprehensive screening, hiring and monitoring process taking place at camp," says Smith. "Incidents of child abuse, yes are rare, all the more important though that parents make sure there is a comprehensive check taking place."

Parents need to ask camps how extensive their background checks are. Are the camps checking backgrounds in other states? If you're sending your child to an out of state camp, find out the specific regulations there. Ask about the ratio of campers to staff and how the campers are supervised; both day and night.  Click here for a full list of questions to ask your child's camp.

Would a better screening process have caught Justin Mowry? While a 17-year-old camp assistant at Camp Yale near Winchester, Mowry was convicted of molesting a nine-year-old boy at the camp. Mowry's now in prison and registered as a sex predator.

Curt Grams wasn't Camp Yale's director at the time of the incident, but he says cases like Mowry's are forcing camps to dig deeper into a person's past.

"I would suggest to most parents to ask questions be up front about it, say what is your process. Do you check backgrounds? Some do, some don't. Some will say, well it's too expensive or it takes more staff, but it's worth it," says Grams.

Parents also need to know that since so many camp counselors are in their late