Police arrested a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl during a recent summer camp at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center.
On June 30, Morgan Hill Police responded to a report that the young victim had been sexually assaulted by a YMCA summer camp counselor, MHPD said in a press release. Officers investigated and learned the incident had occurred while the girl was attending a YMCA summer program at the city’s swim center on Condit Road.
Detectives identified the suspect as Gilroy resident Anthony Joseph Ramon, 25, police said. Authorities notified YMCA leadership, who cooperated with the investigation and immediately placed Ramon on leave.
On July 9, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office charged Ramon with lewd and lascivious acts on a minor, the press release says. Ramon was booked at Santa Clara County Jail on $100,000 bail.
Shortly after MHPD announced Ramon’s arrest, the Morgan Hill Recreation Division released a statement clarifying that while the incident occurred at a city facility, the suspect was not employed by the City of Morgan Hill. Ramon was an employee of the YMCA camp program, city staff said.
Ramon’s employment with the YMCA began on Aug. 6, 2024, authorities said.
Furthermore, the summer camp where the allegations occurred was a “visiting program” that was not operated by the city or its staff. The city’s statement added that it is cooperating with the police investigation.
“The City of Morgan Hill Recreation Division enforces rigorous safety practices, training and screening standards for all personnel,” says the city statement. “In addition to standard lifeguarding certifications, all city recreation staff undergo thorough background checks and fingerprinting. Our personnel receive comprehensive training in youth and child safety, mandated reporting laws and facility supervision to maintain a safe environment for all visitors.”
The MPHD press release added, “The Morgan Hill Police Department encourages parents and guardians to have open conversations with their children about safe touch and inappropriate adult behavior and to report any suspected abuse or unwanted contact to law enforcement immediately.”
“The YMCA of Silicon Valley remains committed to providing a safe environment through comprehensive child protection policies, including employee screening, background checks, mandatory child abuse prevention training, supervision standards and reporting requirements.”
The City needs to start locking people that brake the law up. and remove them from the USA.
They also should lock up close-minded people with bad grammar or send them to space.
This is every parent’s nightmare. A child goes to summer camp (or afterschool care) places marketed as safe, supervised, and enriching and instead is allegedly sexually assaulted by an adult entrusted with her care. According to this article and Morgan Hill Police, a YMCA camp counselor has now been arrested and charged with committing lewd acts against a 10 year old girl during a YMCA summer program held at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center.
And here’s the question our community should be asking:
How many times does this have to happen before “our policies are strong” stops being the default response?
This is not occurring in a vacuum. This is now the second time a YMCA employee connected with children’s programming in our community has been arrested in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of a child. If one case is horrifying, two demand more than thoughts and prayers. They demand accountability. How many more children will be victimized?
Parents often hear reassuring phrases:
“We do background checks.”
“Our staff are trained.”
“We have child safety policies.”
Those statements sound comforting, but they also create a false sense of security. A criminal background check is not an investigation into someone’s character, grooming behaviors, interpersonal relationships, or hidden predatory tendencies. In most youth-serving organizations, screening primarily checks for things such as:
– Criminal convictions and pending criminal cases
– Sex offender registry records
– Identity verification
– Fingerprint based checks through state or federal databases, depending on the position
What those checks cannot reveal is someone who has never been caught, never been prosecuted, or has spent years carefully grooming trust while maintaining a clean record. Predators know this. Which is why child safety can never rely on background checks alone.
California’s licensed child care regulations require minimum staff to child ratios because no adult should routinely have isolated access to children. Depending on the age of the children, required supervision ranges from one adult for every four infants to one adult for every fourteen school age children. Those ratios exist for one reason: to reduce opportunities for abuse and ensure meaningful supervision. But ratios on paper are only effective if organizations are also preventing situations where a single adult can isolate a child from the group.
The YMCA has stated that it uses employee screening, background checks, mandatory abuse prevention training, supervision standards, and reporting requirements. Those are important safeguards but when a child is assaulted by an employee, our responsibility as a community is to ask the uncomfortable questions.
Were supervision protocols followed?
How was this employee able to be alone with a child?
Were there missed warning signs?
Have policies changed since the previous incident?
Will an independent review be conducted?
These are not attacks on the YMCA. They are the questions every parent deserves answered. Children deserve more than carefully worded press releases. Parents deserve more than promises. Our community deserves transparency, accountability, and a willingness to acknowledge that preventing child sexual abuse requires constant vigilance, not simply checking a box that says “background completed.”
One child is too many.