CASPER — When two Natrona County School District 1 trustees showed up for a Friday meeting over a controversy that's sprung up around new Turning Point USA chapters in the district, they were told to leave.
They were invited by the parents of the Natrona County High School Turning Point chapter student founder, but district Superintendent Angela Hensley made it clear that the school board members weren't welcome to attend the meeting, which was meant to clarify the district’s stance on Turning Point USA chapters in its high schools.
The parents of Natrona County High School TPUSA student leader Kylie Wall invited the trustees to the meeting and told Cowboy State Daily they left feeling as if their concerns had not been resolved.
The issues centered on Wall’s belief that her free-speech rights are being restricted by school administrators, who she said have dictated what type of functions her chapter can participate in and whether she can speak to the media representing the club, which the school views as under its authority.
Ada Wall, Kylie Wall’s mother, said although Natrona County High School Principal Aaron Wilson explained his position about her daughter's ability to attend functions outside of the school district and talk to media as an individual, it wasn’t clear what that really means in terms of her daughter’s ability to represent or talk about Club America.
Kylie Wall has said she was told by Wilson that she could not speak with a reporter even off campus on her own time, that she could not represent the group at a meeting with the Wyoming Family Alliance, and that she felt her group was being treated differently than other clubs at the school.
Following Friday’s meeting, the school district issued a “statement of clarity” about TPUSA chapters, stating that they wanted to "provide stakeholders with an understanding of processes while encouraging continued support, engagement, and celebration of all NCSD student-led clubs, their student leaders, and club participants.”
“As always, the choices and actions of students outside of school are the decision of students and their parents/guardians,” the district’s statement says. “When students choose to participate in events, media interviews, or other off-campus activities that are not approved as school-sponsored, they are doing so as individuals and do not represent the school, student clubs, or the district.”
At the Natrona County School District 1 board meeting Monday, Wall, the 17-year-old student, continued to voice concerns about where things stand and reflected on the Friday event.
“We were told all the right things — that my club is supported, that every student is treated equally, and that the district wants our club to be successful," Kylie Wall told the board. "But in the end there were no commitments, no written steps and no accountability."
Meeting Attendees
Ada Wall said she and husband, Jimmie, invited Natrona County School District Trustees Mary Schmidt and Jenifer Hopkins along as witnesses and for support.
Wall said the meeting included the district’s Superintendent Angela Hensley, Wilson, Mike Britt, principal of Kelly Walsh High School, the Club America leader from Kelly Walsh and his mother, and a representative from Turning Point USA.
The Wall family also wanted Megan Degenfelder, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, to join on the phone.
Hensley refused to allow the district’s board trustees into the meeting and did not allow the phone connection to Degenfelder, Ada Wall said. Wall said they decided to continue with the meeting because the goal is to see the Club America chapter at the high school succeed and the principal wanted to talk.
She said Wilson said he had made the statements to her daughter about not being able to attend a meeting to represent Club America at a Wyoming Family Alliance dinner and about speaking with a reporter but explained it as a misunderstanding.
“In his eyes it was a misunderstanding and that Kylie didn’t necessarily need to ask him and because she asked, he was unclear of the circumstances I guess is his view,” she said. “He kind of clarified those things and told Kylie she could do the things that she asked.”
Ada Wall said the principal also said he would support Kylie and the club moving forward and look into what was going on with some teachers at the high school who opposed the club. She said her daughter has also experienced some “retribution” from teachers and what could be characterized as “bullying” since the situation became public.
Schmidt said prior to the meeting on Friday, she and Hopkins were at the high school for a meeting on Wednesday and noticed a student tear a poster off the wall and throw it in the trash. Hopkins retrieved it and saw it was a poster for Club America. She gave it to the school resource officer who was standing nearby.
Both Schmidt and Hopkins said they are seeking clarification from the school about their roles as school trustees and representatives of the constituents in the district who elected them.
‘You Are Not Acting As A Trustee’
Upon arriving at the district building on Friday, the pair were told by Hensley that they were not allowed in the meeting because it was just for parents, students, and faculty.
“And she looked at me and said Mary, you are not acting as a trustee and you cannot come in,” Schmidt said. “And I asked her where is that in statute and she did not answer, then she turned toward the family and said if they wanted to cancel this meeting and set it up where there were other people there, they would do that, but otherwise, it would not include us.”
Hopkins said the superintendent seemed to be confused about their purpose and role in being invited to the meeting.
“She kept saying that we were there to represent the family and we were not, we were there only to observe, and to listen and support the family,” she said.
Both said that Hensley told them that they were only trustees when they were at a board meeting.
“It’s like saying that the governor can only be the governor at certain times. That isn’t the case. There is not any legal statute that defends her statement. It was an incorrect statement,” Schmidt said. “In my opinion, and I am not speaking for the board, it is saying our one employee, which is the superintendent, gets to tell us what we can and cannot do as trustees. She specifically said that I am only a trustee when I am at a board meeting.”
Schmidt said if she followed that logic, she would only be a trustee for two hours on Monday nights and not during committee meetings or when she attends invited functions at schools or hands out diplomas in June.
Schmidt also questioned the district’s public relations and the statement that was issued on Friday.
“I am assuming they prefer to have this issue settled and have the media go away, but I don’t feel it is a settled issue,” she said. “I don’t know that there are guarantees in place to ensure that this club has the proper access to grow and to carry on its purpose as every other club in the school does.”
Schmidt said she also will continue to act and ensure “my rights as an elected official and as a trustee on this board. I will not be limited or prevented from carrying out my responsibilities.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
