A Natrona County High School senior trying to launch a Turning Point USA Club America chapter believes her school principal may be infringing on her First Amendment rights and treating her club differently than others.
Kylie Wall, 17, who belongs to several extracurricular clubs and the high school’s student council, said she approached Natrona County High School Principal Aaron Wilson three weeks ago about starting a TPUSA Club America chapter at the school.
Wilson initially hesitated and said he did not know if he would allow the club to be associated with Turning Point, she said. After allowing her to start one, he told her, “We have to be careful about this,” Wall said.
“I started the K-Dub (Kelly Walsh High School) chapter with the K-Dub students,” Wall said. “I was the one who brought it all up and got these chapters started.”
In an email response to Cowboy State Daily, Wilson did not directly answer some questions related to his discussions with Wall but said, that “an individual student can attend events outside of school at their choosing.”
“School-based activities, athletic groups, or school clubs may participate in community service,” he wrote.
Wall said plans for a joint public meeting with the Kelly Walsh High School chapter were nixed by Wilson and when Wyoming Family Alliance invited representatives from Natrona County TPUSA groups to a dinner to celebrate the chapters, again Wilson refused to allow her club to participate.
“He’s like it’s not a public club,” he said. “It’s not open to the public, so the public can’t be involved with it in any sense.”
Wyoming Family Alliance Director of Educational Resources Sarah Bieber confirmed that the group had reached out to all the chapters in Natrona County including both high school student leaders, as well as the Casper College, and University of Wyoming student leaders to invite them to the event set for Nov. 4.
Celebration Event
“It’s an event to kind of celebrate and bring them into the community,” Bieber said. “To bring recognition to them and all the work that they are doing. Just kind of a recognition, celebration, launch event.”
Bieber said the Kelly Walsh High School Club America student leader has confirmed he will be there.
Bieber said Wilson informed her via email, that Natrona County High School’s Club America would not participate.
“He told me that all communications were to go directly through him, that the club was not a public club and that they couldn’t participate in any outside events,” she said.
The email from Wilson also informed Bieber that: “In the future, please send all inquiries, requests and any other communication for the NC Club America Chapter to me directly. Thank you.”
Yet, Wall said as a member of the high school Key Club, she and other students often attend meals at Kiwanis. She said the high school football team recently attended a breakfast at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Wyoming.
“And so, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.
In Wilson’s email response, he did not directly answer a question posed about whether he refused to allow the Club America chapter to participate in the Wyoming Family Alliance event or if he had allowed the Key Club and football team to attend similar events.
When a reporter from the Oil City News reached out to Wall for an interview along with the president of the Kelly Walsh High School Club America chapter president, Wall went to Wilson about the request. Wilson refused to allow her to speak with him, Wall said.
She said she went and talked to him about the interview request and Wilson told her, “If we even do this, I’m going to be next to you the whole time, I’m going to sit next to you.”
No Media Contact
Wall said he told her she could not speak to the reporter on her own time off school grounds. Wilson said his reasoning was that “he doesn’t want anything political associated with the school,” she said.
The article appeared in the Oil City News with only Kelly Walsh students.
In his written response, Wilson said that district media processes “identify that reporters are to work through” the district’s public relations office to set up school-based interviews with students and staff.”
Wilson did not answer a question posed about whether he had told the student she could not speak with the reporter without his being there with her.
Last Friday, Wall said she was putting up posters that were approved by Wilson around the high school to promote the group’s upcoming meeting on Monday. She had heard talk that some teachers were taking them off the wall.
After she placed one poster on the wall in a certain location, she walked down a hall and heard someone ripping paper.
She retraced her steps to where she placed the poster, saw it was torn off the wall, and a teacher walking away down the hall. Wall said she took a photo of the teacher walking down the hall after the incident. She also went and reported it to the principal.
“I brought it to the principal, and he told me that he had already discussed (the posters) with a teacher once and this time he didn’t know if it was the same teacher,” Wall said. “He said he was going to send out a blanket email to all staff telling them that they can’t do that and that they are approved.”
As of Monday morning, Wall said another teacher had told her that email had not gone out yet.
Wilson wrote that the incident with the poster was reported to administration and “all district processes were followed in responding to it.”
All flyers produced for clubs, activities, and announcements have to be reviewed by the high school administration, Wilson wrote. He said the TPUSA group’s focus on civics education meets the criteria for starting a group at the high school.
Wall said as a member of the student council, not all of their posters have to get the principal’s approval.
Wall said the lesson she is learning from her Club America’s treatment at Natrona County High School so far is that “First Amendment Rights” are worth fighting for. She said the federal Equal Access Act that requires public schools not to discriminate against student clubs based on politics or religion is being violated.
In talks with Kelly Walsh Club America students, Wall said they are having a public meeting at a Casper-area church in the coming week and that students involved there say they have had no issues and strong support from their school administration and teacher advisors.
Wall said her club had an initial student meeting and is planning another on Monday night to go over some Club America videos that involve learning how to “civically engage with one another.”
Wall said she understands that some teachers and others in her school may not agree with the Club America’s purpose or values, but she does not believe there should be a difference in the way her club and others are treated.
“I’m not going to say that the principal is trying to be negative or objective toward me,” she said. “Maybe he is following district protocol, but it seems really unfair. There are definitely teachers that are mad about it (the Club America chapter).”
In his written response to a question about whether the district’s non-discrimination policies apply to TPUSA and students who want to form a chapter at the school, Wilson agreed “non-discrimination policies apply to everyone.”
Asked if he has concerns about the Club America chapter in his school, Wilson wrote that he had “none.”
“Student-led clubs are positive and impactful parts of high school for our students,” he wrote.
Wall said her reasons for starting the chapter are all about helping young people understand how to civically engage with one another. The club can help students develop leadership skills and teach people how to “have an open dialog without absolutely hating one another.”
The point of the club is to promote discourse and see each other as human beings, she said.
‘First Amendment Rights’
Wall said the only way she has been allowed to promote the club is through the posters and there currently are about 15 students who have shown an interest in launching the chapter.
Wall understands that going public with her concerns about how the high school’s leadership has treated her club may bring repercussions to her and the club.
“I’ve thought about it,” she said. “It’s worth it, because again I am fighting for my First Amendment Right, I am fighting for my God-given rights in the Constitution, and I am fighting for my right to the Equal Access Act.”
A Wyoming Turning Point USA representative for Wyoming said she was trying to contact the principal to set up a meeting to understand more about the situation before commenting.
The Turning Point USA website states that the Club America chapters are meant to “empower bold student leaders to promote free thinking, engage in grassroots activism, and bring their beliefs to life—both on and off campus.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
