Family Sues Camp Over Sixth-Grader’s Deadly Fall

The family of an 11-year-old science student who was killed on a camping trip in May when he was swept down a creek and over a waterfall filed suit Friday against the camp in the San Bernardino Mountains where he died.

The parents of Kevin Kelley, a sixth-grader at Woodsboro Elementary School in Anaheim, filed suit in Orange County Superior Court seeking general and punitive damages from Arrowhead Ranch Camp and its staff.

Lawrence Eisenberg of Irvine, attorney for the parents, Matthew and Ginette Kelley of Yorba Linda, called the Arrowhead staff reckless. “They directed 10- and 11-year-old kids to jump three feet across a rushing stream on slippery rocks and boulders.”

Russell Hiles, a lawyer for the camp, which many school districts use for their science programs, could not be reached for comment.

Kevin was hiking with about 80 youths and counselors from the Arrowhead camp on May 7 when the accident occurred.

The group was crossing a creek when Kevin slipped on a rock and a counselor holding his hand lost his grip on the boy, one student said.

The counselor jumped into the water after Kevin, but couldn’t grab him before he was carried away and over the rocky, 300-foot-high waterfall, a spokesman for the San Bernardino Fire Department said in May.

Matthew Kelley, in a statement released by Eisenberg, called on school districts and the Orange County Board of Education to “investigate this facility and others like it to [ensure] that the safety of the children attending is paramount.”

Judy Miner, a trustee at Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, said the district suspended all its programs at the camp after the accident while it looked into the circumstances.

“We definitely double-checked everything after that,” she said. “To my knowledge, everything checked out fine.”