In the months after the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the college-focused organization he left behind, Turning Point USA, has expanded its reach into hundreds of high schools, rousing gripes and accolades along the way.
In a suburban Milwaukee high school, a straight-A senior was suspended after removing a poster advertising Club America, Turning Point’s high school branch.
In Northern California, students demanded a Club America chapter shut down after its inaugural meeting in December included remarks from a Republican official on L.G.B.T.Q. issues that rankled some parents and students alike.
And in Houston, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, celebrated a Club America chapter that had drawn the ire of a high school student’s mother.
All of this friction has surfaced in both liberal- and conservative-run states and in urban and rural districts, as teens and their parents grapple with the confrontational politics that were Mr. Kirk’s hallmark.
“People are outraged,” said Rachel Ortiz, a parent in Northern California. “There’s a reason Charlie Kirk didn’t debate high school kids. He did it with college kids, who are adults.”
Turning Point USA, founded in 2012, aimed its activism at teenagers with the July launch of Club America, calling it the “leading movement for freedom-loving American values,” such as capitalism and limited government. But Mr. Kirk’s death supercharged the effort; the number of Club America chapters has more than doubled since then, rising to over 3,000 from about 1,200, Nick Cocca, the Club America enterprise director for Turning Point USA, said in an interview.
Public officials, past and present, in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma have pushed the expansion, vowing to discipline school administrators who try to block the organizations.
“Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency, where I expect meaningful disciplinary action,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, said during a news conference on Dec. 8 in which he and the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, vowed to help Turning Point bring a chapter to every Texas high school.
Mr. Patrick had already pledged $1 million of his campaign funds to the effort.
A Republican state senator in Tennessee, Jack Johnson, warned at an event on Dec. 12 that “anyone who attempts to thwart” Club America “will face serious consequences, including possible legal action.”
Josh Thifault, a senior director at Turning Point, spoke at the event in Tennessee’s State Capitol and laid out his vision: “I want to create a future where the leftist parents are scared that their kids are going to be a teenager,” he said, pausing for applause before continuing, “because that is when their Club America chapter is going to tell them about Jesus. That’s when their Club America chapter is going to tell them about the founding of the country.”
Under federal law, public secondary schools that allow any student-initiated extracurricular groups to meet on campus must allow all the same access, regardless of viewpoint.
But “student initiated” has become key to the debate.
“You will not convince me this was a child-started club,” Rebekah Huey, a parent in Northern California, said of Club America. “This is something that was put into motion by political figures.”
Turning Point has more funding and adult support than, say, High School Democrats of America or the National High School Republicans, which also have some campus clubs, said Zayed Kadir, 17, the chair of the High School Democrats of America.
“We are students doing this work,” Zayed said, “not adults pushing a narrative and trying to capitalize off the sense of urgency Charlie Kirk’s death gave to bring more people into the Republican fold.”
In interviews, Club America student leaders said the group is nonpartisan, does not promote hate and encourages civic discussion and patriotism.
“The purpose of Club America is to promote constitutional values and constitutional ideals,” said Connor McFarland, 16, the president of his school’s Club America chapter in Katy, Texas, a conservative suburb of Houston.
But Mr. Kirk’s views on topics such as race, gender and abortion are part of the debate.
“We can’t just say we have to allow every single club,” said Jessica Kaiser, a public school parent in Sussex, Wis., a Milwaukee suburb. “I think we can be a little bit more discerning.”
The principal of Sussex’s Hamilton High School, where Ms. Kaiser’s daughter is a freshman, approved a Club America chapter even after the student council unanimously voted against recommending it. Several students who removed Club America posters were suspended for vandalism.
Students who started the school’s Club America chapter, along with the teacher who sponsored them, did not respond to emails or phone calls. Dominic Bauer, the school’s principal, said in a statement that he had become the target of hateful phone calls, emails and social media posts. Moving forward, he said, the student council will not vote on club applications “to ensure all school board policies and laws are being followed.”
Mr. Bauer also noted that disciplinary action has been meted out regardless of ideology: Students who had taken down posters advertising an L.G.B.T.Q. club were suspended as well.
Meagan Wavra, the teacher sponsoring the club that Connor leads in Katy, which was in place for at least a year before Mr. Kirk died, said meetings are apolitical and have not caused problems. The group has historically had about five members, she said, but a few more students expressed interest in joining after Mr. Kirk’s death.
Turning Point offers Club America student leaders slide show presentations that, for example, tout the benefits of capitalism over socialism and provide promotional posters to help spread the word about meetings. Students can also order “activism kits” with more materials. Club America field representatives, who work under Turning Point, maintain communication with group leaders, who are encouraged to recruit new members.
“If you are not growing — you are shrinking!” the chapter handbook states. (The handbook also says students cannot respond to national media inquiries without first speaking to Turning Point. Turning Point facilitated 15-minute interviews with two Club America presidents but asked that their full names not be used.)
Students can apply for grants to invite guest speakers, but those speakers must be approved by headquarters. “We want to help guide them in the right direction as often as possible,” Mr. Cocca said.
In Lincoln, Calif., about 30 miles from Sacramento, it was a guest speaker at Twelve Bridges High School, a Lincoln councilwoman named Holly Andreatta, who set off dissent. Ms. Huey, a school parent, was flustered when her child came home on Dec. 11 upset over remarks that Ms. Andreatta made during the inaugural Club America meeting.
While advising students to love everyone regardless of any differences, Ms. Andreatta referred to her relationship with her lesbian daughter, who she said had suffered “a lot of trauma as a child.”
“And as a result of it, she’s a lesbian — she’s gay,” Ms. Andreatta said in widely circulated videos taken by students.
Ms. Andreatta publicly apologized for disclosing her daughter’s personal information and said her comments had been misconstrued. “I did not say that trauma causes homosexuality,” she said.
Since then, hundreds of people have signed a petition asking the administration to remove the club. Ms. Ortiz filed a formal complaint against the school district, accusing administrators who approved of Ms. Andreatta’s religiously charged visit of violating the Constitution’s separation of church and state. Some community members who attended the most recent school board meeting asked for the club’s termination, while other students and parents defended the club’s existence.
In a statement, the school district said the Club America chapter was approved and met district criteria. “Protecting student free expression and protecting student well-being are shared responsibilities,” the district said. The district “remains committed to fulfilling both, even when the issues involved are complex or uncomfortable,” the statement said.
All of this makes David Sharyan, 17, the national chairman of the High School Republicans, bristle.
“You don’t have to join it if you don’t want to,” said David, who lives outside of Portland, Ore. “But stopping other kids from participating in that is just completely unfair.”
After Nathalie Herpin urged fellow parents at Stratford High School in Houston to ask teachers to not sponsor a Club America chapter, Texas’ brash attorney general jumped in.
Ms. Herpin said the club could “sow division and hate.” Mr. Paxton responded: “The far-left tried to silence these patriotic young Texans, but we will never surrender.”
Ms. Herpin said she received death threats.
“It was a harrowing experience,” she said, adding “my children have struggled with anxiety.”
In December, Mr. Patrick, the lieutenant governor, spoke at Stratford High’s Club America meeting, creating still more parental concern about the students who may have unwillingly had to listen to the politician’s remarks in the school cafeteria.
Some students and parents noted that Turning Point’s expansion into Texas high schools is coming after the state outlawed L.G.B.T.Q. clubs on high school campuses. (That law has been challenged in court, but a ruling has not been issued).
“It feels like viewpoint discrimination,” Anne Russey, a public school parent in Katy, Texas, said. “The double standard really upsets people.”
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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