"Kid Safety Has To Come First" - A Closer Look At Summer Camp Safety with Leading Advocate Elizabeth Phillips
SmartHERNews
Jenna Lee
4.9 • 660 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
**Sensitive Content**
Camp Safety in America: Trey's Law, and Lessons From Camp Mystic.
One click resource: beforeyougotocamp.com.
As we move into another summer season, camp safety advocate Elizabeth Phillips says U.S. summer camp safety needs an overhaul.
Phillips, a Texas-raised mother of three, shares her road to advocacy, describing how her brother Trey endured abuse at a well-known summer camp, was silenced by a civil-settlement NDA; he eventually took his own life. The perpetrator received three life sentences. Prosecutors estimated hundreds of victims.
As a result, Elizabeth has made it her mission to highlight the need for statute-of-limitations reform and has advocated for new legislation - specifically "Trey’s Law" which bans NDAs in child sexual abuse and trafficking civil settlements; it has passed in multiple states and is advancing federally.
Phillips also supported Camp Mystic families after last summer’s deadly Hill Country flooding led to questions about better laws and regulations.
A much needed site guide for parents and guardians everywhere: beforeyougotocamp.com.
00:00 How Safe Are Camps
01:40 Meet Elizabeth Phillips
04:52 Growing Up With Camp
06:40 Kanakuk Pipeline Loyalty
08:24 Trey Story And Loss
11:01 NDA Silence And Trauma
15:47 Delayed Disclosure Stats
18:27 Statute Limits Reform Fight
22:15 What Treys Law Does
25:48 Federal Momentum Timeline
27:16 Oklahoma Setback Opposition
30:46 What Surprised Her Most
31:07 NDA Silence Breaks
32:08 Survivors Testify Again
34:35 Cost of Advocacy
36:47 Parents Ask Hard Questions
38:46 Camp Mystic Tragedy
41:54 Do New Laws Close Camps
45:43 Should Mystic Reopen
53:56 Practical Safety Checklist
57:25 National Standards Push
59:23 Make Camp Safe Again
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're speaking at the end of the school year here in Texas, just to sit the stage a little bit. |
| 0:04.3 | If you could give summer camp safety a grade in America based on all your work and experience, |
| 0:10.3 | what grade would you give? From what I've learned over the last five, six years, not just with |
| 0:16.5 | my family's experience with Kanika camps, but then also the camp mystic situation and doing a |
| 0:21.6 | landscape assessment. I mean, the camp industry has been around 140-ish years, and it's hard to |
| 0:28.4 | answer that because you kind of have to go state by state to give a grade. There's such a disparity |
| 0:32.8 | and difference in the laws and regulatory environments in all of the 50 states in the U.S. |
| 0:37.9 | But as an industry, I would have to say there's not been much accomplished in that century past |
| 0:45.3 | that actually is kid-focused and safety first. |
| 0:49.3 | A lot of these camp associations have lobbied for waivers and exemptions. And that's what I think has surfaced |
| 0:56.8 | in all of these tragedies that we're so now acutely aware of in the camp industry is that the |
| 1:02.6 | industry needs an overhaul and kids' safety has to come first. There has to be accountability, |
| 1:07.9 | transparency, and parents need to know what questions to ask before they're |
| 1:11.4 | entrusting their child to any youth serving organization, but especially an overnight camp, |
| 1:16.8 | a summer camp or a youth camp. So I look forward to digging into that with you more today. And thank you |
| 1:21.6 | for your interest, Jenna, and for including me in this conversation right as we're about to hit summer |
| 1:25.8 | camp season. Well, the timing couldn't be better. And I really believe, Elizabeth, this is one of the most |
| 1:31.1 | important conversations smarter news has had. And you just gave us a great sort of overview of why |
| 1:37.7 | we have to talk about this issue. Just to give you a more formal introduction, Elizabeth Phillips |
| 1:43.2 | is a leading national voice on camp safety, youth camp safety, summer camp safety. |
| 1:48.6 | And she does have a few key areas of focus that we're going to highlight today. |
| 1:52.3 | And just something to consider for our audience, I really like to produce news that is available and accessible to the entire family. |
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