30 Minutes ago in Washington, Erika Kirk was confirmed as…See more
Teens Revolt Over Erika Kirk’s Visit To Their High School
Erika is turning her attention to high school students after hardly anyone at a state university bothered to show up to her event.
Students at a Phoenix high school are revolting against a planned visit from right-wing personality Erika Kirk.
After a sparsely attended Turning Point USA campus event, Erika is now turning her attention to high schoolers, with a planned event at Pinnacle High School in north Phoenix next week.But she is already not being met with open arms by students and parents.
“I don’t know why she’s coming here, to be honest,” Francisco Sanchez, a senior at Pinnacle High School, told 12 News Phoenix. “I think the topics that she talks about are too extremist for a school. I think there are better representatives we can have.”
Erika pictured at Charlie's funeral, which was held in Arizona at the Arizona Cardinals stadium.Daniel Cole/REUTERS
“It’s a little crazy because I would never have expected someone like her to show up at a high school,” high school senior Kasandra Acosta told the outlet.
“I’m pretty shocked. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s even happening,” she added.
Parents of students enrolled at the school told The Arizona Republic they were concerned about security--especially after earlier this week, Erika, who became CEO of her late husband Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA organization after his September killing, skipped an event at the University of Georgia over safety concerns.
“It’s not just your average citizen coming over to speak to the club. She brings politics with her, she brings division with her, just because everybody in America is divided,” Bobbe Noland, a parent of a Pinnacle student, told the Republic.
Vance, the second in line to the presidency, still attended the event earlier this week, despite security concerns with Erika.Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
School officials told parents this week that students would see an increased security presence on campus during the event, prompting some parents to also demand that the school move her visit to after-school hours.
Phoenix Police told 12 News that since Erika’s visit was a private event, the responsibility for securing it rests with the event organizers and must be coordinated with the school district.
“We regularly work with community partners to support public safety during gatherings. As with any event, our officers will continue to monitor activity, review available information, and adjust deployment strategies as needed to help ensure a safe environment for students, staff, and the surrounding community,” a police spokesperson said in a statement.
Her speaking appearance has been organized with the school’s Club America chapter, a TPUSA-affiliated organization. The right-wing nonprofit is headquartered in Phoenix, and she and Charlie lived in the nearby affluent suburb of Scottsdale for many years.
The Daily Beast reached out to TPUSA for comment on the controversy.
Students at Pinnacle High School are not too enthused by Erika's visit to campus next week.Daniel Cole/REUTERS
It’s not the first time she and her late husband stirred up controversy in Arizona’s public schools.
In 2021, Erika and Charlie raged against the Scottsdale Unified School District’s mask policy during the COVID-19 pandemic at a school board meeting. At the time, the couple did not have any children yet.
During the meeting, Charlie called the mask policy a “self-righteous measure” enacted to “abuse the children.”
“There is zero evidence to show that children are at a significant risk of catching or dying from the Chinese coronavirus,” he claimed, adding, “You have awoke a sleeping giant. I hope you enjoy your masked, short-term future here while it still lasts.”
The Kirks had welcomed their first child in August 2022, a year after they complained to a school board about its COVID policies.Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Erika, who grew up in Scottsdale but attended private Catholic school, went as far as to demand a moment of silence at the board meeting for “the kids who will end up committing suicide this upcoming school year in 2021 and 2022 because of your reckless and ego-centered leadership and lack thereof.”
“As Christians, we are told to pray for our leaders and that is what I will do every day,” she said. “May God have mercy on your souls for everything you guys are doing in this leadership position.”One Scottsdale parent called them out, pointing out that they didn’t even have children who were enrolled in the city’s public schools.
“While the agitators from outside our district would have you think that masks mandates are only in place at liberal public schools, the list of private and parochial schools also enacting mask mandates is far from short,” the parent said. “I applaud SUSD’s governing board.”
At 20, Barron Trump finally CONFIRMS what everyone had long suspected…👇👇👇.
My Future Mother-in-Law Destroyed My Dead Mother’s Wedding Dress—Then One Whisper at the Altar Exposed Why She Needed Me to Run
Three hours before the wedding, my future mother-in-law ruined my wedding dress and left a note with just four words: "Know your place." She thought I would cry, run away, and become a laughingstock in front of 200 guests. But what silenced the entire wedding wasn't the soiled dress... it was what I whispered to the groom as we stood at the altar.
Three hours before my wedding, I found my dress floating in a bathtub full of red wine, black coffee, and something that smelled like bleach. Pinned to the ruined lace was a cream card in my future mother-in-law’s handwriting: Know your place.
For ten seconds, I couldn’t breathe.
The dress had belonged to my mother. She had worn it in 1989, and before she died, she spent six months restoring it with me—replacing pearls, repairing the train, sewing one tiny blue thread beneath the hem because she said every bride deserved one secret no one else could see.
Now the silk was pink-brown, the lace eaten through, and one sleeve had dissolved into threads.
Behind me, my maid of honor, Tessa, whispered, “Oh my God, Claire.”
I didn’t cry.
That was the first thing Evelyn Harrow got wrong.
The second was believing I didn’t know exactly why she hated me.
To Evelyn, I was “the scholarship girl” who had somehow trapped her only son, Adrian. She introduced me as “an accountant” with the same tone people used for dental plaque. At engagement dinners, she corrected my pronunciation of French wines I had never ordered and once asked whether my family “understood formal cutlery.”
She never mentioned that I was a forensic accountant specializing in family-owned companies, or that I had spent the last six months quietly helping Adrian review irregularities inside Harrow Hospitality after his father’s stroke.
Evelyn thought money made her untouchable.
She also thought Adrian knew nothing.
Tessa picked up the note with shaking fingers. “Call him. Cancel everything.”
“No.”
“Claire, she destroyed your mother’s dress.”
“I know.”
My voice sounded strangely calm.
I photographed the bathtub, the note, the hallway, the broken lock on the bridal suite, and the tiny security sensor above the service door. Then I called hotel security.
The manager arrived pale-faced.
“Mrs. Harrow requested that camera be disabled this morning,” he admitted.
Of course she had.
But Evelyn didn’t know I had installed my own battery-powered camera in the dress case after someone searched my apartment two weeks earlier.
I opened the app.
There she was.
Evelyn entered at 9:14 a.m., locked the door, poured three bottles over the gown, smiled at the camera she thought was d:ead, and placed the note on top.
Then she made a phone call.
“Once she runs,” Evelyn said, laughing, “Adrian will finally sign the amended trust papers.”
I froze the video.
Tessa stared at me. “What amended trust papers?”
I looked toward the chapel doors, where two hundred guests were waiting to watch me become a Harrow.
For the first time that morning, I almost smiled.
“The reason this wedding was never just about me.”...
To be continued in C0mments 👇
