JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — District leaders at Duval County Public Schools say a flyer promoting a Turning Point USA club at Fletcher High School was not approved before it was passed out to students. Now the school has been told to change the messaging.
Students told Action News Jax that some of the brochures were being ripped up and tossed around campus by students who didn’t agree with what was written on them.
The flyer includes an image of someone who looks like a teenager, holding a sign that reads, “9MM beats 911 every time.”
Another section says, “Every day, people who hate this country move to Florida. And for every one of them that moves here, a vote for a candidate that also hates this country is cast.”
Josephine Griswold, a grandparent who has a student at Fletcher, says she told her granddaughter not to get involved.
“I told her not to be part of that either,” Griswold said. “She knows. She doesn’t like it either.”
She says messages about politics shouldn’t be dispersed at school.
“I think they’re trying to put hate in each other,” she said. “I’m not for a political party that starts hate. It starts teaching us to hate each other.”
According to DCPS policy, principals are to approve clubs and review materials before anything is handed out to students. But when we asked the district if this flyer had been approved, they didn’t answer our question directly, only saying the school is now updating the flyer to ensure compliance.
Read: Duval School Board’s ‘turning point’ shirts spark hypocrisy claims amid firings, investigations
School Board Member April Carney, who represents the Fletcher area, confirmed to Action News Jax that the materials were not approved.
“The principal told me that the student had created the flyer on his own,” Carney said. “He had gotten images off the internet and wrote all the verbiage that was in the flyer on his own and distributed the flyers without prior approval from the teacher sponsor or the principal.”
Parents like Josephine, though, still don’t want to see a Turning Point club in any district schools.
“It should not be allowed in the school,” she said. “They’re still young. They can teach kid stuff, not political stuff.”
According to the flyer, the club’s first meeting is scheduled for next Monday. It’s not clear if that meeting will still happen.
You can read the district’s full statement to us here:
“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.”
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