COLUMBUS, Ohio — Political commentator Charlie Kirk would have turned 32-years-old on Tuesday.
Nearly five weeks after he was shot and killed at a rally in Utah, many young people are continuing to keep his memory alive through his organization.
Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012. It’s an organization with a mission to promote conservative ideas among young people.
Several colleges and high schools around Ohio have chapters, including in central Ohio, where students testified before a school board earlier this year.
That group at Hilliard Davidson High School said its mission is to “educate students on essential American values, such as freedom, limited government and a free market.”
Back in January, a Turning Point USA staffer joined students to push the district to recognize them claiming they were being oppressed and not being allowed to host events.
The club is currently listed on the district’s website.
A political science professor said clubs like this one can promote discussion of important issues.
“I think we need a healthier balance of discourse at all educational institutions, and one of the problems that we have seen is that discourse has been dominated by a very loud aggressive faction of the left, and there are certainly people that do not want chapters of Turning Point USA because it’s a very different ideological voice, and there are reasons that one might not like that but its not healthy to have discourse dominated by one ideological faction,” said Justin Buchler, associate professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University.
Buchler said creating these clubs is a way for students to express their freedom of speech.
He said in the past, the more liberal groups were more organized on school campuses.
Buchler said since Kirk’s murder, people are getting a clearer idea that there may be more ideological diversity among students and younger people.
There is at least one candlelight vigil scheduled for Oct. 14 for Kirk’s birthday. It’s taking place in the Sunbury Square at 6 p.m. They’re billing it as an evening of unity and a way to come together and reflect on Kirk’s words of faith.
Cassidy Wilson
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