Letters to the editor Feb. 16
Turning Points mission
As the founder and president of the Turning Point USA chapter at Flathead Valley Community College, I want to rebut the categorically false information in the Feb. 13 letter to the editor (Turning Point in schools, Feb. 13).
I can assure the readers that the main mission of our clubs is to get people to think. At our core, we’re a free speech club. Do we hold certain convictions? Yes. But our main goal is to get people to really think about why they hold certain beliefs, and provide a balanced perspective on issues that are generally only talked about in left-leaning manners in schools.
Charlie Kirk himself said, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.”
Conversations about the issues of the day are what leads to, not only personal growth, but societal growth. We saw the fulfillment of what Charlie said when he was grotesquely assassinated before our very eyes on Sept. 10, 2025.
There’s a takeover of the schools happening at progressive lengths — we saw evidence of this when Finley Warden went undercover at a Montana teacher’s union conference last fall, and discovered they were training the teachers on how to push radical gender ideology on even the youngest of students. If this isn’t teaching kids what to think, I don’t know what is.
It seems that, ultimately, the author fails to recognize that having a Club America on campuses doesn’t inherently mean it’s going to touch every student. A club is an extracurricular that students choose to take part in — not something that is mandatory. He wants a fair and equal education system for all, which means having equal ability to have a club that aligns with one’s values and interests, as any other club.
— Kristen Neumann, Hungry Horse
An alternative to wokeness
To Mr. Oppedahl (Turning Point in schools, Feb. 13), I would ask, What do you want to put in our kids' heads? What are you afraid of?
No one is forcing theology or religion, or anything else, on our kids by encouraging the establishment of a Turning Point club in our schools. No one will be forced to join. It is simply offering an alternative to the woke culture that has invaded our educational system and a very different world than the one in which most of us grew up.
Many kids today are lost, faithless, hopeless and fearful of what they see going on around them. And, unfortunately, are not receiving the grounding or moral foundation at home that they need to navigate today’s world. Have you been completely oblivious to the insane number of school shootings perpetrated by youth on our youth, not to mention the assassination of Turning Point’s founder? Or the heartbreaking increase in the number of suicides among children, some as young as 6 and 7?
You may be “a big fan of Jesus” but you apparently don’t know Him or you would be celebrating and encouraging a positive alternative for our youth.
“Go into al the world and make disciples of all nations.”
Ring a bell?!
— Kathryn Berg Bigfork
Student groups
Gov. Greg Gianforte and superintendent of public schools Suzie Hedalen have stepped into an arena neither has any business inserting themselves and their personal views. Uncalled for is their dog-whistle like call for Turning Point USA clubs in all of Montana’s high schools. We all should be horrified.
Student groups and clubs in high schools and colleges originate with student interest. A few students find a common interest in, say, D&D, chess, history, Bible study, Spanish, skiing, politics, really whatever it might be. Those few students find a trusted teacher or other school official and ask if that individual will be their advisor, and then they ask the authority designated by the school to approve their group. Upon approval, they are free to use school facilities to hold meetings and pursue their shared interest. No governor or superintendent involved.
For this process of a student interest-led formation of student groups to be pushed instead from anywhere above the students’ impressionable heads is manipulation and plain wrong. Please, K-12 parents especially, voice your concerns about this with your school administrators and stop this blatant move to indoctrinate and influence your children.
Make no mistake, I am all for student groups for Bible study, but also for atheism, Buddhism, and any other religious interest students might wish to explore together. My point is that those choices must be reserved for the students, not adults looking to shape students’ thinking to the adults’ belief systems.
— Judy Hay, Helena