Hardly a week goes by without another outrageous attempt by leftist administrators, professors, or teachers at America’s universities or high schools to stifle any expression of conservative ideas. This week was no exception.
On December 8, the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Otay Ranch High School near San Diego, California, organized an event with popular Foundation speaker and conservative powerhouse Ben Shapiro—fresh off his extraordinary performance at the University of Missouri last month.
A standing-room-only crowd of more than 450 students, faculty, and community members packed the room, as Ben introduced many of these students to your conservative ideas for the first time.
Halfway through Ben’s speech on how free markets can alleviate poverty, however, the school’s assistant principal decided to “dismiss the students” because Ben “crossed the line.” The assistant principal later told Ben that he decided to let the students leave in order to “protect” their feelings.
Can you believe that?
Unfortunately, instances in which school officials feel the need to coddle students and prevent them from hearing your conservative point of view are becoming more prevalent.
Prior to the speech, Ben even shared with this assistant principal an overview of the topic he planned to address in his remarks—“the differences between leftist thought and conservative thought”—and assured him that he would not address controversial issues that run counter to the school district’s guest speaker policy.
This still was not enough for the leftist administrator who simply decided that expressing any conservative ideas was too much. The Left’s intolerance of opposing views knows no bounds.
Many of the students booed loudly when the assistant principal interrupted Ben’s speech, and more than half of them chose to stay to hear the remainder of the lecture.
The controversy made national headlines, including appearing onBreitbart.com, The Blaze, IJ Review, Newsbusters, The Rebel, The College Fix,Red Alert Politics, and The Daily Wire.
Commenting after his speech, Ben could not have put it better when he said, “The left has hijacked our educational system from the bottom up. It doesn’t start in college. It doesn’t even start in high school. Teaching American children that they are victims of a cruel and unjust system is a nasty lesson few Americans unlearn. And apparently, if you attempt to teach that they have every opportunity in the freest nation in the history of the world to succeed, you will ‘cross the line.’”
You and I know that it is more important than ever to reach students with your conservative ideas at an earlier age. That is why Young America’s Foundation’s high school programs at the Reagan Ranch and across the country are so vital to ensuring that young people understand and are inspired by ideas of limited government, free markets, traditional values, and a strong national defense.
The students of Otay Ranch High School’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter attended one of our programs earlier this year. The activism training they received and connections they made helped them organize this great event with Ben Shapiro.
As a result, they introduced many of their peers to conservatism and exposed at least one of their administrator’s leftist views, intolerance of conservative thought, and preference for political correctness.
Your generous support has helped these young students on their journey with Young America’s Foundation. I am sure they are as grateful as I am.
As always, thank you very much for partnering with Young America’s Foundation and standing so strongly with our students who are working hard to counter the liberal bias at their schools.
Sincerely,
Ron Robinson
President
