Monsey day camp faces fines over child's death

[Ian David]

Monsey day camp faces fines over child's death

By JANE LERNER
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: April 19, 2007)

RAMAPO - The operators of a Monsey day camp failed to properly supervise children enrolled there, including a girl who left the grounds without permission and was hit by a car and killed while crossing Saddle River Road in June, the Rockland Board of Health said yesterday.

Rabbi Mitchell Chill, director of Camp LaRuach, housed at Beth Rochel School for Girls at 145 Saddle River Road, said that neither he nor the camp's president, Jacob Rosenbaum, was responsible for the June 29 death of 12-year-old Leah Ausband.

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The child's mother told investigators that she warned the camp the day before the fatal accident that Leah might try to leave the grounds to go to a relative's house across the street, said John Stoughton, who is in charge of camp inspections for the Rockland Department of Health.

"Knowing that, they still didn't take any steps to supervise her," he told the board.

The girl, who turned 12 the day before she was killed, apparently left the camp at the end of the day without anyone noticing. She crossed a busy stretch of Saddle River Road, went to a relative's house, then was attempting to get back to the camp when she walked in front of a van driven by a Spring Valley man.

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