A Club America chapter at a Duval County high school in Florida has come under fire for a promotional flyer containing photographs of students holding up TPUSA-branded foam boards depicting guns and slogans defending and promoting the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. Along with this, several community members are against the organization’s presence within their district in general.
The president of the newly founded Fletcher High School chapter detailed to TPUSA what led him to start a chapter and the backlash it has prompted among fellow students.
“After the tragic death of Charlie Kirk, I felt obligated to start my own TPUSA chapter at my high school,” he said. “We got it approved and ended up setting up a table during lunch. This table had posters, sign up sheets, and flyers. It was going well for a while, and we got almost 100 people to sign up on just the first day of advertising.
According to the chapter president, students “were calling us ‘racist’, ‘hateful,’ and a whole bunch of different slurs.”
“I’ve had many people threaten me and no longer feel safe in my own school,” the chapter president further said, including one student hoping he gets “Kirked.”
One student against a Club America chapter at Fletcher High School told Action News Jax.
“A club that teaches exclusion rather than inclusion has no place in my heart on the school campus. If any other club did that, they would be suspended into the ground almost indefinitely,” the student said.
The district finds the images on the flyer problematic. In a comment about the situation to Action News Jax, Duval County Public Schools said it is cooperating with the chapter to ensure its compliance with district policy.
“Duval County Public Schools is committed to maintaining an inclusive environment that welcomes all students and fully supports their right to form and lead clubs in accordance with district policy on student-led organizations (Policy 4.50). School Board guidelines require that all club materials, including flyers, receive pre-approval before being distributed on campus (Policy 4.51). Fletcher High School has worked with the club to ensure compliance with these guidelines, and the club is updating its flyer.”
