Assumptions Shaken

A few days ago, I began reading a novel called The Inverted Forest by John Dalton.  It is about a summer camp in the Missouri Ozarks and its counselors.  The focus of the story is one young man named Wyatt Huddy, disfigured by a genetic disorder called Apert's Syndrome which makes people think that he is mentally disabled.  Of all the characters in the novel, however, Wyatt probably has the most common sense and objective outlook toward people. 

Most of the camp counselors were hired two days before the beginning of camp season, because the original counselors had been fired for having an overnight pool party involving nudity and behavior that should not take place on a children's campground.  No one told the new counselors, who were hired with no experience, that their charges for the first two weeks would be wards from the state mental hospital.  These young counselors would be looking after adults with mental retardation, autism, and other psychological disorders.  These kids had no preparation at all for the type of behavior that they would witness from their first campers, let alone any experience as to how to deal with the behavior.  The camp administrators had no training in psychology or counseling for these populations, either, and thought that taking care of these campers would be the same as looking after young children.

Imagine everyone's shock when, during the first night, Wyatt and his fellow counselor Chris Waterhouse find their male campers having sex with each other behind the cabin. 

I was shocked, too!  Because there was absolutely no mention of such activity anywhere on the book jacket.  I was also shocked because this event in the book coincides with my own research about whether or not people with Down's Syndrome could be gay or lesbian. I realize that this is a novel, and anything can happen in fiction, but apparently the author has had personal experience working in summer camps for the developmentally disabled.  John Dalton has witnessed this type of sexual activity among the developmentally disabled, as well as the illicit sexual activity of camp counselors away from home in the woods. 

I am less than halfway through the novel; right now the camp administration and counselors are trying to figure out how to deal with the "problem".