Arizona high school students push back against Turning Point USA club at their school

TUCSON – A group of high school students at a Tucson school is pushing back against a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) club on campus, saying they feel unsafe and that the club violates the school district’s student organization policies. 

Latino Student Union members at Rincon High School were on their lunch break on Thursday when they saw a Turning Point USA representative, along with one of their teachers and a few students, recruiting for Club America, a TPUSA high school program.

Turning Point USA is a conservative nonprofit organization — linked to pushing controversial viewpoints, including supporting the immigration enforcement activity that has escalated across the country — that, according to its website, aims to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.”

Dennis Ayala, a Rincon senior and president of the Latino Student Union, told CALÓ News that a teacher and students began campaigning for the club in the fall, but it was denied under a Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) policy that prohibits clubs affiliated with third-party organizations. 

TUSD’s policy on student organizations, clubs and student government says “nonschool persons may not direct, conduct, control, or regularly attend activities of student groups.”

TPUSA launched Club America, a high school chapter-based program, in July of last year. On its website, the organization states that, “With over 1,000 high school clubs, and counting, Turning Point USA High School is the largest and most impactful youth movement for promoting freedom-loving, American values.”

On its website, Turning Point shows about a dozen high school clubs in metro Tucson. Those clubs are in the Vail, Marana, Catalina Foothills and Amphitheater school districts and private high schools in the area. Rincon is the only TUSD school listed on the map. There is also an “activism hub” in Tucson, where students can connect with the organization if they can’t get a club approved at their school, according to the Turning Point website.

On Tuesday, TUSD responded to CALÓ News' request for comment with a statement that outlined students' "right to express themselves" through the creation of campus clubs.

Per TUSD policy, "schools must provide equal access to facilities and opportunities for student-led, non-curricular clubs to meet and express their viewpoints, regardless of political or religious affiliation," and club activities must take place "before or after school, during lunch periods, or after the school day or week," the statement read.

TUSD did not provide a comment regarding the presence of the TPUSA club and did not clarify if it is indeed an approved club on campus. CALÓ News was also unable to identify the teacher.

With a population of more than 80% non-White students, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Latino Student Union members are expressing their concerns and demanding that TUSD shutter the chapter.

‘They laughed in our faces’

Concerned, Ayala and Avyana Martinez, secretary of the Latino Student Union, approached the Turning Point table on Thursday. They asked why they thought it was okay to have the organization “at a school filled with immigrants, minorities and a vast diversity of students?”

The students brought up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that have reportedly been on the rise in Arizona, the killing of Renee Nicole Good in early January at the hands of an ICE agent, reports of abuse in detention centers and ongoing detentions, Ayala said. 

“They laughed in our faces,” he said.

Martinez, a sophomore, said the teacher at the table told her and Ayala that the representative was allowed at the school and that they were exercising their First Amendment rights. 

The bell cut their debate short, but Ayala returned to the table during University High School’s lunch period. Rincon High School and University High School share a campus. Classes and lunch periods are separated, but clubs and sports are combined.

When he returned, the TPUSA representative and others supporting Turning Point started recording and taking photos of Ayala and other students expressing their concerns without their consent, he said. Students also recorded those standing behind the Turning Point table. 

The situation escalated when the teacher moved closer to him and the other students and began sharing his personal political perspective, Ayala said. 

“I told him, ‘You need to back up. You need to back up,’ because he was getting very angry when he was talking with us,” Ayala said of the teacher. “I understand the situation was heated, but he was opening the doors for more and more heated conversations.”

Videos Ayala provided to CALÓ News show students in a circle debating the teacher, who says he thinks “there are paid provocateurs” that “try to get in the way of ICE doing their job.” 

Another video shows about 20 upset students asking, “is this allowed?” A girl tells the teacher, “You are not allowed to take a political stance!”

“So, is anybody going to answer my question? Do you support ICE?!” one girl asks. 

“Yes!” a group of students and the Turning Point representative shout in unison.

“They support ICE. They support murder! They support rape! Do you hear that?!” the student is heard saying in the video before administrators are heard telling the student to get away from the table. Students are seen in the background booing with their thumbs down. 

School security and administrators had to separate Ayala from the group, he said. 

Martinez said she felt discouraged to see TPUSA at her school two days after they had a successful protest against a lot of the beliefs Club America members hold. Ayala and Martinez helped organize a walkout on Tuesday in protest of Donald Trump’s one-year anniversary in office, the implementation of his administration’s immigration policies, the escalation of ICE raids and other injustices they wanted to draw attention to. The walkout was part of a nationwide Free America Walkout where people across the country protested the Trump administration. 

“We spoke about unity. We spoke about coming together, doing justice,” Ayala said. “We spoke about fighting against ICE, and protecting our immigrant friends and families, our community and our school.”

Students to speak before TUSD

Seeing Turning Point on campus made Martinez feel even less safe at school. 

Martinez said she has already experienced fear and intimidation, making her feel unsafe at school. In early November, Martinez received texts from a random number with death threats, telling her not to go to school the following Monday, she said. 

“Now it makes me even more afraid that school, an environment that's supposed to be safe, is an environment welcoming hate and negativity and all of that,” she said. 

Martinez and Ayala vowed to continue pushing back against Club America at Rincon. 

The Latino Student Union organized a session this week with a Tucson Unified Governing Board member for students to express campus concerns. And Ayala plans to speak at Tuesday’s TUSD meeting, he said. The district’s governing board will hold a Special Meeting on Jan. 27 open to the public at 5:30 p.m. at the multipurpose room of the Duffy Community Center located at 5145 E. Fifth St. in Tucson.

Martinez would also like to attend a meeting, share her concerns with district officials and solidify a stance so that other students and parents can join the fight, she said. 

Martinez said she believes people are entitled to their opinions until they start hurting others. 

“Until people like me and all the other students who oppose Club America and oppose Turning Point being on our campus and so forth, until we all come up and say ‘this isn't okay,’ and kind of cross that line to say that ‘we don't want to allow you here and your opinion is wrong,’ nothing is going to change,” she said.

Ayala said while Turning Point promotes itself as an organization that promotes open conversation, he disagrees. The club does not promote open conversation, equity or neutrality, he said. 

“TPUSA only has a track history of presenting hate and presenting fear for many students,” Ayala said. “And for the students who want that club to be there, I wish they could live in other people's shoes for a day, live in their life for a day and see why people are scared.”

Stephanie Casanova is an independent, bilingual journalist from Tucson, Arizona, covering community stories for over 10 years. She is passionate about narrative, in-depth storytelling that is inclusive and reflects the diversity of the communities she covers.