Voices from across the community filled the Oct. 15, 2025 Hononegah Community High School Board of Education meeting, where students, parents and alumni shared different opinions about a proposal to form a new student group, Club America [PDF] through Turning Point USA. (Quotes in this article are taken from public comments made during the Oct. 15 Hononegah Board of Education meeting.)
How the Turning Point proposal began
Earlier this fall, Rockton-Roscoe News reported on student Kennlee Rayann’s role in a flag-lowering moment that helped inspire her effort to start a Turning Point USA chapter at Hononegah.
Turning Point USA, co-founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery, promotes civic engagement and conservative principles on high-school and college campuses. Opponents, such as the American Association of University Professors, say the group promotes “racist, homophobic and transphobic speech.” The Anti-Defamation League says it does “not consider TPUSA to be an extremist group.”
Kirk, who had become a prominent national voice for conservative youth activism, was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, during an event on his American Comeback Tour. The tragedy brought fresh attention to the way schools handle safety and free speech, the same questions now facing Hononegah’s board as it considers a chapter of Turning Point USA Club America…