Concern as red state pushes Charlie Kirk organization into public schools

U.S. President Donald Trump, next to Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow, makes a fist during a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona, U.S., September 21, 2025. REUTERS/Daniel Cole

In deep red Nebraska, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen announced a plan to bring the MAGA youth group Turning Point USA — led by Charlie Kirk's widow Erika Kirk following his fatal shooting in September 2025 — to Nebraska schools. Pillen and his allies are touting the plan as promoting free speech and diversity of thought.

But only a day after Pillen's announcement, students from Lincoln Northeast High School in Lincoln, Nebraska exercised their First Amendment rights by, according to Omaha World-Herald Josh Reyes, marching four miles from the campus to the Nebraska State Capitol Building.

Reyes reports, "They held anti-ICE signs and chanted phrases like, 'No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here.' They draped themselves in flags for Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, the United States and others. They sang and danced to music by Bad Bunny. In the afternoon, hundreds of students from nearby Lincoln High School walked out and joined them at the Capitol, lining both sides of K Street several layers deep.

According to Reyes, the students — who held their march on Wednesday, February 11 — "were skeptical about putting Turning Point's Club America chapters into every school in the state."

Faye Harpham, interviewed by the World-Herald, said of Turning Point USA, "We're a very diverse school, but I don't think there would be a lot of interest."

Reyes reports, "Malaya Turner-Banks, a Northeast senior, also said she did not think many students would know what Club America or Turning Point USA are. She expected more would be familiar with Charlie Kirk since his death, but she was not sure they would know about his brand of politics or activism."

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