EARLY IN July, I wrote about the African-American and Hispanic kids at Creative Steps Day Camp who'd been booted from the all-white Valley Club swimming pool, for reasons camp founder Alethea Wright said were racially motivated.

All Wright wanted, back then, was to find a new place for campers to splash on the Monday afternoons her kids were to have whiled away at Valley. When we spoke, a benefactor from Girard College had just offered Wright the use of Girard's lovely pool.

"I'm relieved," Wright told me. "I'd like to put this behind us."

Yesterday, Wright sang a different tune.

She'd just learned that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission had found, as the result of a complaint lodged on behalf of five campers and two parents, that the Valley Club had racially discriminated when it revoked the children's swimming privileges. The finding, Wright said, would boost the credibility of lawsuits filed by her own legal team, which also represents 50-plus additional campers.

"I feel vindicated," she said.

When I questioned whether it was fair punishment that the nearly broke Valley Club might close as a consequence of legal costs, she was unequivocal.

"If you discriminate, you should not be allowed to operate," Wright told me, before a news conference she and her lawyers held to say how pleased they were by the HRC report. "If the club ends up closing, what can I say? It is what it is."

So much for putting things in the past.

A closure would be a shame, which I'll get to in a sec.

But first let me note that many media outlets erroneously reported yesterday that the HRC had fined Valley $50,000 and that the report's complainants deserved financial damages.

The truth is, the commission has not ruled on any of the findings in the just-released report, which most of the commissioners had not yet read, HRC spokesperson Shannon Powers told me (even though the report certainly sure seems to indicate otherwise). The report is a finding of facts and a recommendation, not an official ruling.

The next step is for both sides to negotiate a settlement or, failing that, participate in a public hearing before the HRC, which would then issue an official ruling. At that point, either side could appeal, triggering new rounds of legal wrangling.

Got that?

While I'm at it, attorney Joe Tucker, who represents Valley, contends that the report is missing many of the club's responses to HRC investigators' questions, which he had faxed to the HRC "moments" before the report was released to the press by pro-bono attorneys representing the folks referenced in the report.

Therefore the document, he said, is at worst inaccurate, at best incomplete.

"We can only assume it was written before we supplied our information," Tucker said.

I read the entire report, and I have to say: Some parts that seem uncontestable by Valley (including verbatim e-mails) document a brand of subtle racism that some white people don't even know they possess, until it's pointed out to them.

Even then, some don't get it.

It's an understatement to say that the subtle racism exhibited by some Valley members got pointed out to them, big time, in the avalanche of shaming media that accompanied this story.

And I think they got it, big time.

As for Creative Steps, the hurt felt by campers and families was greatly soothed by the staggering outpouring of support, ranging from moral encouragement to an all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World they received from sympathizers of every color.

Wright and campers' parents told me so.

Surely that lesson is as important - if not more so - than the one that says only a huge financial win can avenge a wrong?

Valley lawyer Joe Tucker told me that, early on, Creative Steps asked for more than $1.6 million plus other compensation from the club, to be divided among its campers as payment for having been pulled from the pool.

Tucker said the cost would shut the club for good.

Instead, Valley wanted to offer the kids a return to the pool, free swimming lessons and a "unity picnic" for Valley and Creative Steps members so everyone might start bridging color gaps that can cause such pain.

Given the obvious validity of some troubling points made in the HRC report, Valley's counteroffer seems like an insult.

Surely, between a picnic and a payout, there's something that acknowledges the difference between being vindicated and being vindictive?

Between being sorry and making true amends?

Something that allows apology and forgiveness to co-exist?

Think of the lessons the kids would learn.

E-mail polaner@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2217. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/polaneczky. Read Ronnie's blog at: http://go.philly.com/ronnieblog.