Correction: SNCC bathroom was closed off by NEON

NORWALK, Conn. – An action taken by Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now (NEON) employees was recently attributed to the South Norwalk Community Center on this site.

NEON employees closed a hallway gate to restrict access to the first floor public bathroom when children were present for a summer camp led by Donna Wimpfheimer in the SNCC multi-purpose room. NancyOnNorwalk said that SNCC staff had done it. We regret the error.

The hallway gate prevents people from walking down the hall from the waiting area to get to the bathroom. There is a doorway to the hall from the multipurpose room, which opens behind the gate. Closing the gate kept adults in the building from getting to the children, SNCC spokesman Patrick Ferrandino said. NEON receptionists did it in a good-hearted way, he said, to protect the children.

Ex-convicts visit the building as part of NEON’s Alternatives to Incarceration program. There is also a halfway house next door, where former inmates transition from prison life back into society.

The first-floor bathroom was virtually unusable last week, as neither NEON or SNCC has been stocking it with toilet paper, paper towels or soap. Wimpfheimer said the children had been going upstairs to use a NEON bathroom.