If you’re a current student at John Adams High School you may have come across a poster in the hallways that features a new club called “Club of America.” If you’re also anything like me, you may have overlooked it as a normal club. That was until I was informed of it being a local chapter of Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point of USA (TPUSA). A chapter is not your regular club but a sub-branch of a larger, main company that strives to share whatever mission or goals supported by that company. TPUSA has over 3,500 chapters and groups across the country, all of which are located in various high schools and colleges. The main goal of this organization is to “educate young people about the importance of limited government, free markets, and freedom. ” They also pride themselves on spreading conservative ideologies to students and the youth.
Club America, partnered with TPUSA, is another name for the high school program under this organization. The kinds of activities vary from chapter to chapter, but on the official Turning Point website are pre-made presentations to present at the chapter meetings. The contents of these presentations all contain information that align with the conservative ideology, but more concerningly, include harmful propaganda. One of which is titled “socialism sus” and goes on to explain how socialism is allegedly terrible for America, and in TPUSA’s words, “how it threatens individual liberty and economic prosperity.” Another presentation named “thankful for capitalism” that praises the system without mentioning any of the cons associated with it. The worst of all 18 slide presentations on the website so far, is one titled “Israel.” Which completely disregard the country’s destruction on its neighboring nations and genocide conflicted upon Palestine. TPUSA even doubles down, stating how Palestine is occupied by a terrorist organization, using that as an excuse for the active war crimes Israel is using against them.
On the chapter’s promotional flyer for Adams, it mentions how this chapter is not meant to change political views. Though these presentations have an obvious bias towards certain viewpoints and are meant to persuade viewers into following their beliefs. If these slides are not written with influential intent, why aren’t they presented to be open-ended and in a more informative manner? Even if this local Club of America doesn’t use these presentations in their meetings, it clearly shows how their representative, TPUSA, aims to spread their personal political rhetoric.
Another concern regarding this new Club of America is its very founder; what Charlie Kirk stood for and how those beliefs should not belong in a teen space. Kirk’s ideologies were heavily rooted in a lack of freedom and rights for many minorities. For starters, he was a christian nationalist who viewed any other religion as an anomaly of the United States. He commented on Islam being a threat to the country and claimed the religion sought to control the land / territory. He also went after Jewish communities, saying how they support “anti-whiteness.” Kirk even began yet another sub-organization of Turning Point named TPUSA Faith, which is dedicated to preaching christianity to his followers. The opening statement on the website reads: “TPUSA Faith exists to unite the Church around primary doctrine and to eliminate wokeism from the American pulpit.” Kirk actively fought against the rights for LGBTQIA+ individuals and women in modern American society, believing that a woman’s only role was to marry and reproduce. These are not just harmless opinions, they are indirect perpetuations into restricting the freedom of American citizens. A man with such a harmful agenda should not have any sort of presence in a high school, where teenagers have an easy exposure to.
Students at Adams have also expressed their concerns regarding the new Club of America. The common reaction upon students learning of its existence is shock. I can’t say I have seen many express any positive feelings about it, it seems to be an overall negative reaction. In researching this, I asked a few classmates their opinions on the chapter, and what impact they believe it will have on students and the school environment. “I think the impact will be overall negative. It’s a way to encourage students to be honest about their political beliefs, and I think that will cause issues among the student body,” says Rae Treber-Lentych, a current senior at Adams. Another student expresses the chapter’s social media account and the types of posts they endorse: “Reposts of the Instagram account give off a certain political bias, which I think is harmful,” stated by a requested anonymous senior. Sebastián Sanchez, current senior, says, “I think ‘honoring’ the legacy of someone who has spewed a hateful rhetoric would only increase tension between students.” As mentioned before, this Club of America has an Instagram page with the username “jahs_clubamerica.” The 83 comments under the account’s singular post display students of John Adams High School commenting memes and gifs of Charlie Kirk. Other comments express disapproval of the chapter. What’s certain is that no other club or program at Adams has stirred up such controversy among students, which I believe is telling of the already sprouting tension in the school community.
My personal concerns with this Club of America emerging–which I’m sure I’m not alone in–is the indoctrination of developing teenager minds. The promotion flyer is nowhere near clear on what the “club” actually consists of. There is no mention of Charlie Kirk and the only reference to TPUSA is in the tiny email posted in the corner. This secrecy leads me to believe that it is done purposefully to lure unknowing students in, especially freshmen who aren’t familiar with the school yet and could be looking for clubs to join. If the organizers of this local chapter do end up utilizing the presentations found on the website, then my main issue comes from the misleading and persuasive nature of them that can make the right type of person blindly follow.
