In October, two Eagle County high schools started Turning Point USA clubs, sparking community backlash that led to a petition to halt the club’s establishment at one school.

Turning Point USA is a national nonprofit with a mission to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government,” according to the organization’s website. The nonprofit was co-founded in 2012 by the right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed in September while speaking at a Turning Point USA public debate event at Utah Valley University.

The organization, which has college and high school chapters, “guides citizens … to restore traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family, and fiscal responsibility,” according to its website.

TPUSA clubs lead to pushback

The founding of Turning Point USA chapters at Battle Mountain High School and Eagle Valley High School led to pushback from community members concerned about the values the organization intended to teach students. 

Some of the turmoil boiled over onto Facebook after news of the Eagle Valley High School club’s scheduled first meeting on Oct. 28 was posted on the Vail Moms Facebook group. The meeting, presumably open only to students, as it is a high school club, was postponed, but the post sparked debate about the nature of the club and its parent organization.

A Change.org petition of unclear origin, called “Stop Eagle Valley High School from Hosting Turning Point USA Group,”  was started around the time of the Facebook post about the meeting.

“This isn’t just a political debate club,” the petition’s description said. “TPUSA is a well-funded organization linked to hard-right extremists identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group prides itself on being at the forefront of cultural wars, perpetuating fear and division.”

“Publicly funded schools in Eagle County, Colorado, should not provide a platform for well documented, dangerous organizations like Turning Point USA,” the petition said.

The Vail Daily reached out through Change.org to the creator of the petition, listed as “JH R,” on Friday afternoon but did not immediately receive a response.

Christopher Buono, an English and business teacher at Battle Mountain High School, wrote in a letter to the Vail Daily and posted on the Vail Moms Facebook group that he was asked by students at the school to serve as the club’s faculty advisor.

“I pride myself on keeping politics out of the classroom—unless the topic is student-initiated,” Buono wrote.

As the club’s faculty advisor, Buono wrote, his intent was to “focus my energies on today’s students and the ideas and ideals that will form the foundation of our collective future.”

Much of the rest of the letter was spent refuting claims made about Charlie Kirk.

“If you’re going to ‘not like’ him, it should at least be for something he truly said, and not some cherry-picked, taken out-of-context soundbite whose sole purpose is to foment hate for (scare quotes) ‘the other side,'” Buono wrote.

“Please remember these are children we’re talking about,” Buono wrote. “…we all should be fighting for the rights of our kids to explore their world with curiosity, to organize and voice their opinions (not only the ones we agree with), and to take action when necessary — all with a healthy dose of skepticism in a world arguably with too much (mis)information.”

Buono declined a request for an interview from the Vail Daily.

District policy, federal law protect clubs’ right to exist

As a public secondary school that receives federal funds, the Equal Access Act of 1984 requires that the Eagle County School District not discriminate against student clubs based on the religious, political, philosophical or other content of their speech.

“Therefore, we are not permitted by law to preempt this group from forming or meeting at EVHS or BMHS,” wrote Matt Miano, the district’s chief communications officer, in a statement emailed to the Vail Daily.

District policy requires that student clubs open membership to all students, adhere to guidelines set by the school’s principal and invite the club’s faculty adviser to every meeting. Non-curricular clubs are not permitted to receive public funding or support other than the opportunity to meet on school premises.

“We encourage students to demonstrate leadership and civic engagement, whether they are conservative or liberal,” Miano wrote. “This is an example of a student led club that has followed all the necessary protocols to meet on site during non-class time. The students have met with the administration and understand they have a responsibility to make sure the clubs don’t become a distraction to the learning environment.”