SOCIAL ISSUES // PERSPECTIVE

A 7-year-old was ordered to leave a fountain because of her swimwear. Even she knew that it was all wrong.

When her mother prepared to write a complaint, the rising second grader drafted her own message

Theresa Vargas
June 27

In a drawing, the 7-year-old girl set the scene.

Starbucks sat in the background. Uneaten food rested on an outdoor table. And smack in the middle of the Downtown Silver Spring fountain, where the water spouted the highest, stood a boy in shorts and a “Surfs Up” shirt. Next to him, two girls in bathing suits played. All three wore smiles.

Off to the side stood another figure, a frowning yellow-haired girl in purple shorts and a matching shirt.

The 7-year-old circled the girl to indicate it was her.



A 7-year-old girl drew this the night she was ordered out of the Downtown Silver Spring fountain. (Roz Dzelzitis/Roz Dzelzitis)

What happened to the rising second-grader on a recent evening at the popular Maryland splash fountain has elicited outrage from some parents and raised important questions about the practices of privately owned, publicly used aquatic spaces where children spend their summers splashing and squealing.

What led to the incident is complicated, but this much remains undisputed: The girl was singled out because of what she was wearing.
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At one point, she said, her daughter walked over to them and pointed at a boy in the fountain. ... “She said, ‘But look, that boy over there is wearing swim shorts and I’m wearing swim shorts,’?” Dzelzitis said. ... “He said, ‘But that’s a boy and you’re a girl.’?”
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This piece originally appeared in The Washington Post.

Theresa Vargas is a columnist for The Washington Post. Before that, she worked on the local enterprise team.