School board approves Turning Point USA as Bellefonte Area High School’s newest official club
Turning Point USA will have an official club in the Bellefonte Area School District after the board approved the club’s application after almost an hourlong discussion on Tuesday.
The motion to establish a student activities account was approved 6-3, with Jon Guizar, Julie Fitzgerald and Andrea Royer dissenting.
Turning Point USA is a national nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values and limited government.
Guizar said that he had no problems with the group’s beliefs or mission but would vote no due to the board’s policy on student groups.
“Turning Point USA student groups can exist, does exist, and does not need approval, because they exist right now as an equal under the Equal Access Act as a non-curricular group,” Guizar said.
Non-curricular clubs are organizations that do not directly apply to the district’s curriculum but are allowed to operate in the schools outside of class time.
There are over 20 students involved in Bellefonte Area High School’s Turning Point USA club, with teachers Elizabeth Devinney and Josh Diehl as staff advisors, according to a post on the district’s website.
“Even though Turning Point at the national level is a more conservative organization, here at Bellefonte it is for both sides to come together with open dialogue on topics, so the conversation at school isn’t just one-sided,” said Noah Aberegg, a junior who started the club’s application process, in the district’s post.
The club hosted its first meeting at Bellefonte Area High School on Oct. 11, according to a post on the club’s Instagram.
According to the district’s extracurricular policy “such meetings must be voluntary, student-initiated, and not sponsored in any way by the school, its agents or employees.”
Fitzgerald voted no due to concerns about the club’s involvement with a national organization.
Turning Point USA’s application states that the club’s decisions are independent from the national organization but one of the club president’s duties is to report to the national officials.
“This means that to the extent that the school board opens these facilities to the student-led non-curricular crew, they must uniformly open to all student-led groups, including religious ones,” Guizar said.
Jack Bechdel and several other board members said that since non-curricular clubs had been approved by the board in the past, it was only fair for TPUSA to be approved as well.
“It sounds like Equal Access is becoming more like equal denial. That we can’t approve this because we’re afraid of something coming down the pipe, later on, that’s a little bit scarier,” Bechdel said during the meeting.
At the board’s Feb. 22 meeting, two people asked during public comment that the club’s approval be on Tuesday’s agenda.
One of them was Suzanne Dixon, of Marion Township, who spoke in defense of Turning Point USA and its potential impact on students during public comment on Tuesday.
“This club would help them explore their viewpoints and personal beliefs not by force or influence, but give them a foundation to articulate, explain and speculate defend their positions as they enter the next chapters of life, whether it be work, college or with their peers,” Dixon said.