Former Houston Food Insecurity board member calls camp where girls went missing after flood a ‘white-only girls camp’

A former Houston Food Insecurity Board member is facing backlash Sunday after posting a TikTok video in which she called the camp where several girls were swept away and remain missing following flash floods a “white girls camp.”

Sade Perkins, appointed to the city’s Food Insecurity Board by former Mayor Sylvester Turner in 2023, shared the video from her private TikTok account.

In the 2.5-minute clip, Perkins, who does not show her face, displays the Camp Mystic website while accusing the camp of being a “white-only girls Christian camp.”

“I know I’m going to get cancelled for this, but Camp Mystic is a white-only girls’ Christian camp. They don’t even have a token Asian. They don’t have a token Black person. It’s an all-white, white-only conservative Christian camp,” Perkins says in the video.

The video quickly circulated on social media, drawing widespread condemnation for Perkins’ remarks.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire addressed the controversy on Sunday, calling Perkins’ comments “deeply inappropriate” and stating they have no place in a decent society, especially as families grieve confirmed deaths and await the ongoing search for missing persons.

“The individual who made these statements is not a City of Houston employee,” Whitmire clarified. “She was appointed to the City’s Food Insecurity Board by former Mayor Sylvester Turner in 2023, and her term expired in January 2025. Mayor Whitmire has no plans to reappoint her, and the City is taking immediate steps to remove her permanently from the board.”

Also on Sunday, Kerr County officials provided an update on the missing campers, reporting that 11 of the more than 20 reported missing since Friday have yet to be found.

Camp Mystic, established in 1926, grew popular over the decades to the point where families are encouraged to place prospective campers on the waitlist years in advance. Photos and videos from before the flood show idyllic scenes of large cabins with green-shingled roofs—bearing names like “Wiggle Inn”—nestled among sturdy oak and cypress trees along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

Social media posts featured girls fishing, horseback riding, playing kickball, and performing choreographed dances in matching T-shirts. Campers, ranging in age from 8 to 17, posed with bright smiles and arms around friends’ shoulders.

Officials said the campsite was struck by floodwaters early Friday when the Guadalupe River surged to 26 feet (7.9 meters) in just about 45 minutes, submerging the flood gauge.

It remains unclear what evacuation plans, if any, Camp Mystic had in place.