{"id":90888,"date":"2025-08-23T09:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90888\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T09:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:43:10","slug":"after-olympic-scandal-world-boxing-imposes-genetic-sex-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90888\/","title":{"rendered":"After Olympic scandal, World Boxing imposes genetic sex testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>From The Center Square<\/a><\/p>\n

By Bethany Blankley<\/a><\/p>\n

Parents who lost their daughters from flood waters at Camp Mystic said their deaths were \u201c100% preventable\u201d and asked the legislature to implement mandatory safety protocols for camps statewide.<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic, an elite Hill Country multi-million-dollar enterprise, repeatedly appealed to FEMA to remove it from a 100-year flood plain designation; the appeals were granted, according to federal records. Located in \u201cFlash Flood Alley<\/a>,\u201d the Guadeloupe River tore through part of the camp, taking the lives of 27 campers and counselors and one of the camp\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n

The camp charges roughly $8,800 for four weeks and roughly $15,000 for the summer, with an additional $2,000 for horseback riding, a relative who lost a camper told The Center Square. The camp had no alarms, no cell phone tower or communication capabilities, including radios, or evacuation system in place, parents said. Campers were told to stay in their cabins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy were our children sleeping in a known high risk flood zone? Why was the stated evacuation plan to stay in place? Why were there no adequate warning systems in the cabins, despite a similar tragedy on the very river as recently as 1987? Why were summer camps entrusted with the care of our most precious gifts, exempt from the basic safety standards required of every daycare and school in Texas?\u201d<\/p>\n

A Houston area mother, Lindsey McLeod McCrory, who attended the camp, told news outlets the policy she and others followed during a\u00a01987 flood event<\/a>\u00a0was to stay in their cabins. Thirty-eight years later, her daughter, Blakely, died from flood waters that killed the youngest children bunked just feet from the river.<\/p>\n

At a Texas Senate committee\u00a0hearing<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday, Michael McCown, who lost his daughter,\u00a0Linnie<\/a>, 8, said, \u201cWe trusted Camp Mystic with her precious life, but that trust was broken in the most devastating way. The camp had a heightened duty of care, and they failed to perform. That failure costs 25 campers and two young counselors their lives. No one had to die that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not send Linnie to a war zone. We sent her to camp. We trusted that she would be safe. There was never a question in my mind that a camp would not be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The camp\u2019s no cell phone policy should not apply to staff, he said, adding that all camps should have \u201cfully up-to-date\u201d communication systems and \u201csafety measures must not lag behind.\u201d He expressed support for SB 1, which includes \u201ckeeping cabins out of floodplains, requiring real emergency plans, mandating weather radios and alert systems,\u201d which he said \u201cshould already be the baseline for every summer camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cici Williams Steward told the committee, \u201cMy daughter was stolen from us. Cile\u2019s life ended. Not because of an unavoidable act of nature. But because of preventable failures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter,\u00a0Cile Steward<\/a>, 8, is the only Camp Mystic camper still missing. She is one of two known victims who remain unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTexas summer camps must be properly equipped, trained, and held accountable so that future generations of children can experience the joy of camp without being placed in preventable danger,\u201d Steward said. \u201cCile\u2019s chance to experience camp only existed because I was ensured that her safety and the safety of all the young girls was paramount. I ask you, what could have been more important than that? But that assurance was betrayed. Obvious common sense safety measures were absent. Protocols that should have been in place were ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark Baker, who lost his daughter,\u00a0Mary Grace<\/a>, said, \u201cMy daughter should still be here. Her death was 100% preventable. Complacency, among other things, led to the deaths of 27 amazing, innocent, beautiful girls. We can\u2019t let complacency claim the life of another child. We simply ask for mandatory, common sense, state regulated safety protocols for camps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCamps, especially those in areas prone to flash floods, should have adequate warning systems and not build cabins in dangerous floodplains,\u201d he said. \u201cSurely don\u2019t put 8- and 9-year-olds in them. Have a legitimate evacuation plan. Know the plan. Practice the plan. Train workers and counselors to implement the plan.\u201d He said camps \u201cshould be held to a standard similar to other institutions that oversee our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker, who lives in Beaumont, said, \u201cHurricane Harvey hit us hard. The very next year we were blasted by Hurricane Imelda. These disasters were both considered 500-year-floods.\u201d Another flood or natural disaster \u201cwill happen again,\u201d he said, which is why safety measures must be put in place for 1,100 camps in Texas.<\/p>\n

Blake Bonner, who lost his daughter,\u00a0Lila<\/a>, said, \u201cKnowing what we know now about that night makes one thing painfully clear. \u2026 This was an act of pure complacency. A common tragic theme you will find amongst the 27 angels we lost is that they \u2026 followed the rules. They did exactly what they were told to do that morning: stay in their cabins.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur daughters paid the ultimate price for their obedience to a plan that was destined to fail. This risk is obviously not theoretical.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said what happened was \u201cPreventable failure. It was a failure of planning, prevention, detection and response. Which leads us to the questions that will forever haunt us: Why were our children sleeping in a known high risk flood zone? Why was the stated evacuation plan to stay in place? Why were there no adequate warning systems in the cabins, despite a similar tragedy on the very river as recently as 1987? Why were summer camps entrusted with the care of our most precious gifts, exempt from the basic safety standards required of every daycare and school in Texas?<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the questions that demand answers \u2026 in the form of meaningful legislative action. To delay action is to tell every parent in Texas that their child\u2019s safety is not a priority. It is to accept a risk that has already been paid by the lives of our daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every parent who testified expressed support for SB 1, which includes a series of reforms for camp safety in Texas. The committee advanced the bill, which is expected to pass the legislature and be signed into law.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

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