Usually, clubs and students pass each other as ships in the night, save for the niche of people to whom the club caters. This year however, one club has been at the forefront of many students’ minds: Turning Point USA.
Founded by Noah Coffin and Ollie Woodrow as a branch of the national organization, who are now the president and vice president, respectively, Turning Point USA, or TPUSA, exists to “educate and to train not just conservative students, but all students at Western in the key constitutional and conservative values that help found and shape the United States,” according to Coffin.
The conservative values in question are free speech, free market capitalism, and limited government. TPUSA has held meetings and lessons on their core values, and in the future, they hope to host debates about such topics.
“We wanted an open platform for a safe space for discussion and just promoting these ideas,” Woodrow explained.
Senior Dan Diamond, self-proclaimed Democrat, said, “even if they’re promoting ideas that I disagree with, I think creating the space for people to discuss politics is probably the most important thing you can do as a citizen.”
On top of lessons and possible debates, they have brought and plan to bring in conservative speakers. So far, Bob Good, former US Republican congressman from our district, and Isabel Brown, a conservative influencer who has come out in support of president Trump and his administration, have spoken during meetings.
The club, despite conservative beliefs and Republican speakers, claims to be non-partisan—conservative but not politically affiliated. “Our job is solely to educate students on these constitutional values. And so that means we don’t endorse any political candidates,” Coffin said, claiming speakers will never include politicians running for office.
“We don’t want to be tied down to this Republican Party, because both parties are somewhat corrupt,” Woodrow added.
Last October, Bob Good officially declared his candidacy for the 2026 election. He has been a speaker for TPUSA twice since their founding in January of this year.
“Our opinions on a lot of things that, I guess many would label social justice issues… obviously a lot of it is related to politics,” said sponsor Michelle Karpovich.
“I think that they have kind of made a sad attempt to be like, ‘oh, well, we’re not actually affiliated with Republicans; we’re a bipartisan club,’ which is just obviously not true,” senior Caroline Grist said. “The people that they are supporting and standing behind, like Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump, have beliefs and have made actions that have been very harmful to minority groups that definitely exist within this school.”
Future plans include putting up larger American flags into classrooms, with teacher consent, as well as putting up pro-life flags like Karpovich’s, but they are encountering roadblocks with ACPS policy.
Principal Jennifer Sublette explained that, while American flags are deemed “non-partisan” and thus a valid use of club resources, the request for pro-life flags “was deemed to be more partisan. And so while the club can engage in political activities as a club, it shouldn’t impact instructional time or space.” Karpovich, meanwhile, distinguishes her classroom from her “office,” enclosed by sliding whiteboards, where her flag hangs, in order to follow ACPS flag policy.
They are not, despite rumors, creating a “faculty watchlist.”
Such a rumor may have sprung from the “professor watchlist” created by TPUSA as a national organization.
TPUSA, founded by Charlie Kirk, Republican columnist and author of “the MAGA Doctrine: the Only Ideas that Will Win the Future,” is split into two main sections: TPUSA for education and Turning Point Action.
The educational part of TPUSA works to educate high school and college students on the US Constitution and conservative values, register eligible students to vote, and bring speakers to high schools and colleges. Both Bob Good and Isabel Brown were chosen from a list of speakers TPUSA provides to high school branches.
This part of TPUSA has created a “Professor Watchlist” and a “School Board Watchlist.” The Professor Watchlist “unmasks radical professors,” according to its website, sorting them under categories such as “protests,” “racial ideology,” or “LGBTQ” with evidence ranging from topics taught in class to personal and even deleted social media posts.
The School Board Watchlist functions similarly, but for county school boards. ACPS is listed in the watchlist, which focuses on its library ownership of “hypersexualized” books like Alice Oseman’s “Heartstopper,” an LGBTQ+ graphic novel series for young adults, as well as its policy for transgender students.
Turning Point Action, on the other hand, is a political organization that endorses Republican candidates and canvases for votes. TPUSA at Western is not affiliated with Turning Point Action, despite belonging to the same parent organization.
Because of supposed political affiliations, TPUSA has received both strong positive and strong negative reactions.
Notably, “we have definitely had numerous incidents of cyber bullying of myself, as well as the club officers,” Karpovich said, citing a Facebook parent group that “encourage[d] that this club be stopped before it ever even started.”
Despite complaints, “it’s important for students to know we support any group organizing,” Sublette said, noting that, “we welcome any club that we feel like doesn’t violate a code of conduct.” Under ACPS policy, WAHS is required to give space to clubs such as TPUSA, provided they do not intrude on class time or instruction.
“Anything important, of course, is going to have resistance, but we’ve also had so much support, and that’s why we’re doing this,” Woodrow said. “There’s so many people who just love what we’re doing… They finally just have this place with people who agree with them [to] share their beliefs or don’t, and they can come and have an open discussion.”
Such conflict has not sprung up unprompted. In her visit, Brown allegedly referred to abortion as the greatest genocide in history, comparing it in magnitude to the Holocaust. It is important to note that a genocide is defined as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group,” according to Merriam Webster.
Good, in his second visit, called climate change, which NASA recognizes unequivocally, “the great climate hoax,” while referring to Democrats as “climate extremists.”
“It was really upsetting to me when misinformation was being spread to students and there was no regulation of it,” Dan Diamond said. “There’s a difference between an opinion being taught to someone and then lies being taught to someone… it just made me very upset seeing that in my school.”
