Grieving Texas father: My daughter died at Camp Mystic because I taught her to obey authority

By Matthew Childress | Commentary, Houston Chronicle

On July 4, 2025, my 18-year-old daughter Chloe Madeline Childress was killed. Not in a car or hunting accident, but because she listened to me as her father. I taught her respect for others. I taught her right from wrong. I taught her to obey orders and to listen to those in authority.

My daughter was one of two counselors that needlessly passed away at Camp Mystic during the early morning hours of July 4, along with 25 young campers. She died because she followed directions. The instruction from camp leadership was to “stay in your cabin.” She did what I taught her to do, obey orders, while the camp managed to evacuate others all around Bubble Inn.

The largest mass casualty in summer camp history did not happen by chance. It was the result of complacency, having no plan, little training, no systems and no response when second-grade campers and counselors like Chloe needed those things most. 

It happened because we have allowed youth camps to self-regulate, to operate without the safeguards we’ve come to expect of every daycare, every school, and every other child care facility in Texas.

“Stay in place”: That’s what Chloe was told to do. And it’s what Texans cannot do now. 

We need new laws. And we need them urgently.

Texas summer camps have a deep history and a large impact across the social fabric of our state. As a boy, I attended camp in Hunt. Three generations of women in my family are Camp Mystic alumnae. I spent my youth picking up my sister at Mystic, staying at The River Inn and begging to stop at the Hunt Store on the way out for a burger.

Mystic has been around for 99 years. Girls are added to its long wait list right after they are born. I was honored to have my daughter attend and spend ten years as a camper. She created life-long memories and made friends who she expected to continue to enjoy this fall, after she enrolled at the University of Texas as a pre-med.

Instead of moving my daughter into her dorm on August 14, I was at the Texas state capitol alongside more than 20 other grieving families who also lost their daughters at Mystic. We were there pleading with state leadership for their help, so that a repeat of this tragedy could not happen to anyone else in the future. We were encouraged by their words of support, and they promised to take action.

I understand that we live in Texas. We are about small government, parental empowerment and low taxes. Our state believes in keeping regulations to a minimum to ensure that businesses can thrive without unnecessary regulatory hurdles.

But as the deaths at Camp Mystic show, youth camps cannot be allowed to self-regulate. And the time to act is now. Gov. Abbott made camp safety the number one agenda item this special session, and it should be a top priority for every responsible adult in our state.

We cannot wait until the 2027 regular legislative session to act. If we delay, children will go to camp again next year under the same broken system that failed our daughters. That is a risk none of us can accept. We owe it to our children — and to yours — to fix this now.

The changes we need are not political. They are not expensive. In fact, most other youth-serving organizations must already meet these requirements. They are common-sense measures that everyone should be able to agree to so that camps can thrive into the future, while providing critical safety protection for all Texas children:

● Prevention: No child should sleep in a floodplain. Daycare and school siting laws already prohibit such dangers. Camps must meet the same standard.

● Warning: A simple flood or weather alert system, with backup communication, could have saved lives. Instead, the camp had no alarm, no warning and no way to phone the cabins.

● Planning and training: The official plan at Mystic was to “stay in place.” But the girls who died were the ones who followed that plan. Training should prepare staff and campers to act, not to wait in danger. There was also no coordination with first responders, no lighted evacuation paths, no exit signs. In an emergency, confusion kills.

These are basic protections that all parents want and should demand when they entrust their child to a summer camp. They are not costly, and they are already proven effective in other contexts involving kids across Texas. Camps have simply been exempt. That exemption has now cost lives.

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