Sudbury mother upset by city employee filming children at daycamp

A Sudbury-area mother is disturbed and frustrated by the way the city handled an incident at a playground camp involving her daughter and another child who were filmed by a city employee.

Tracy Burnham says she stumbled across a Facebook reel which showed a young girl bent over playing, beside her daughter who was filmed face-on, as the lyrics of a sexually suggestive rap song played underneath.

"My daughter is 6," said Burnham. "The girl next to her looks to be about the same age and she is bent over and she's playing at something bent over, so the camera is capturing her from behind and a song starts singing: "apple bottom make 'em want to bite. I just want to have a good night."

Burnham recognized the the gymnasium where her daughter's playground camp was being held.

She says her stomach dropped and she wondered why the city would post such a thing, but then noticed it was posted on someone's personal Facebook account.

Burnham says she alerted some of the staff at the daycamp immediately.

"They were really concerned" she said. "They saw the video and they both freaked out and they said to me it can't be somebody from the camp because we are absolutely not allowed to do this."

That was on July 24.

Three days later, not having heard from the city, Burnham called Leisure Services and was told the person who made the reel works for the city at the day camps.

Burnham says she was told that the reel had been taken down and Human Resources had dealt with the matter, issuing a reprimand.

While she had taken her children out of the daycamp, Burnham asked if the staff member continued to work with children and was told that he worked at day camps around the city.

Burnham says she was disturbed and continued to push the matter, going so far as to send an email on August 2 to mayor and council about the employee's continued access to children.

She's frustrated that she was never allowed to discuss the issue with the manager of Leisure Services. 

Burnham says she felt her concerns were trivialized when she was simply offered a refund for the day camp costs.