Meet Seventeen Voices of the Year honoree Cameron Samuels! 🎙Cameron led a powerful movement against censorship in their Texas school district! 💻
As a high school freshman in the Katy, Texas Independent School District, Cameron Samuels discovered an internet content filter on computers that prohibited access to LGBTQ advocacy websites, such as The Trevor Project. The category it fell under in the filter system? “Alternative sexual lifestyles .” Already aware of the measures that the school district had implemented to ban books and censor vital resources, Cameron knew that it was time to speak up.
In November 2021, Cameron stood alone before the school board to fight the district’s vitriolic censorship efforts and detail the detrimental impact it has on marginalized students — to which they received no applause. But they built a movement, packing subsequent board meetings with impassioned students. “I’m personally affected by issues of mental health. I am queer. I am Jewish. And I am harmed by these policies,” Cameron said.
My education, K-12, was in Katy, Texas and it was once a place for diversity in our curriculum, in our libraries, and in the programs and opportunities that were offered. It was a wonderful district that provided what it needed for its diverse community. But in recent years, it has become so much more conservative. I saw that the district was giving into bigotry that was spewed by parents at board meetings and by legislators that put pressure on the district to remove books.
While Katy was such a progressive community before, I don’t think it ever was a safe place to be openly queer or to stand up for marginalized races. We had to come together to make change. The school board meeting in November 2021 was the first time I publicly brought to light the internet filter. It was the first time we heard students responding to this effort to ban books. Soon after, my friend wrote a petition that’s now gotten over 2,000 signatures.
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