Last year, as senior Noah Lesher walks into the student activities director, Kelly Zeurner’s, office, he clutches to the U.S. Board of Education Equal Access Act. He knows he will most likely receive backlash for wanting to start a conservative club at school, but perseveres anyway.

 
Lesher got the idea to start a branch of Young America’s Foundation (YAF) after the recent election when he observed a tense political climate. 
This emerging club aims to spread knowledge of conservatism and clear up misconceptions about their beliefs. They meet every Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. in room 200 and hope to hold discussions and plan events in the future. 

“YAF at DGN is committed to increasing numbers of Young Americans that understand or are inspired by individual freedom. Our main goal, though, is to take off the veil of ignorance surrounding conservatism. They jump right to Trump, right to Neo-Nazis and KKK. That’s just not true. That’s not what conservatism is. It’s individual freedom. So I’m just trying to express that without ‘Oh my God you’re a Nazi,’” Lesher said. 

Senior Cecilia Kowara has actively been involved in YAF throughout her life and is excited it is getting started at DGN. She views it as a fun opportunity to hang out with people who have similar political interests as her. 

“This club is very important to me because I think it shows growth at DGN in truly accepting everyone. For the past three years, I always heard about how we were supposed to accept any and all views, but I definitely feel as if I was judged for my views. I’m just happy to see a bunch of people with the same thoughts being able to come together to share them,” Kowara said. 

Social studies chairperson Jeanne Dehmlow is the sponsor for this club, however she does not receive a stipend (an additional amount of money) due to the new status of the group. She is not sure if she will continue to supervise the club next year. 

Additionally, she is not physically present inside in the room during the meeting in order to avoid any misconceptions about her judging a student.

 
“I am very politically-minded and active. I love our country and I love freedom of speech. I also believe in getting students involved and being civically engaged and part of that is getting voices involved. [Lesher] really was passionate about talking about his ideas and whether I agree with those ideas is irrelevant,” Dehmlow said.

The tense political climate that provoked Lesher to create YAF, Dehmlow also noticed in the school environment. She noticed hate throughout the school as well as an increase in hateful tweets. 

“There has been a rise in the school environment of lashing out at people of color or immigrants or things that are very provoking of disagreeing views. There’s been a rise of it across the country and across the school. I think all of us need to be careful how we move forward and I want all students to feel safe and responsible for their words and I don’t blame any one side in the building for that. The way the tenure of the club meetings go and the thing I’ve said to Noah about it is be mindful of your words,” Dehmlow said. 

 

The attendance of the club skyrocketed from a little under 10 people in attendance at second meeting to about 40 in the third meeting. However, not all members at the third meeting were conservative. 

Senior Selma El-Badawi attended to observe the meeting as a person strong in her left wing beliefs, but believes it is essential to have conversation across political parties. She accredits Lesher for holding a respectful and informed discussion. 

“When I walked in the door people weren’t very happy with [my presence]. I consider myself to be a leftist and I think a lot of people know. I think when I went in there people were quite shocked,” El-Badawi said. “I felt unwelcome to kind of comment.”

Kowara hopes that in the future YAF could get conservative speakers to come in and invite the students as well as partake in community service. 

“I hope this club changes some people’s opinion on conservatism as a whole. We are not racist. We are not sexist. We are not homophobes. We are not nazis. We are not white supremacists. I just hope that throughout this year, we can show the people that think we are monsters that we aren’t and we are just the same as them,” Kowara said.