Young Democrats/Republicans clubs at school

[Red]

So... That's just not true.
There was at least one fight. Some asshole came to school with a flag and started yelling, "TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP" the day after the election and a fight broke out.

That is hilarious.

[EquALLity]

Do you guys think I should I go to Young Rs tomorrow?
If I do, should I record and try not to say anything that they might try to twist as 'disruptive' (so I'd be super polite)?

[brimstoneSalad]

Do you guys think I should I go to Young Rs tomorrow?
If I do, should I record and try not to say anything that they might try to twist as 'disruptive' (so I'd be super polite)?

Sure. Make sure you know what your school considers disruptive. Raise your hand or follow whatever rules they have for speaking.

You may be able to bring up being kicked out before. Maybe they'll kick you out again, either way you'll have it recorded. Make sure you start recording before you go in the room. Make sure you have plenty of space and battery power.

I still really think you should contact the ACLU though.

[EquALLity]

Do you guys think I should I go to Young Rs tomorrow?
If I do, should I record and try not to say anything that they might try to twist as 'disruptive' (so I'd be super polite)?

Sure. Make sure you know what your school considers disruptive. Raise your hand or follow whatever rules they have for speaking.

You may be able to bring up being kicked out before. Maybe they'll kick you out again, either way you'll have it recorded. Make sure you start recording before you go in the room. Make sure you have plenty of space and battery power.

I still really think you should contact the ACLU though.

I didn't see this because it was posted after I went to school, but I went, and it turns out the club only meets every other week. Mr _______ was pretty nice to me and said he thought there was a misunderstanding... He said they kicked me out because it was members only, not republicans only. I pointed out that's not what they said, plus that id been to the club before and signed up for it at club fair. One guy interjected and implied I wasn't a member because I'm not conservative, essentially proving they still think that it's ok to kick out students who are liberal and saying they can't be club members. Another guy said "It's called young republicans for a reason". And the teacher didn't correct them or contradict them at all.

I didn't record it but I have a witness.

[brimstoneSalad]

I didn't record it but I have a witness.

That's unfortunate. You should talk to the witness about it and record that. Confirm those points you mentioned.

And I guess go talk to the teacher again about it, and bring up all of those points and record them. Now that you know what he's going to say, you can just talk about what he said and get him to confirm that.
AND remind him what the other students said (that you're not allowed because you're not conservative), and ask him why he didn't correct the student if that's what he believes.

Wait and see if he reports the student's conduct to the administration as bullying. He won't.
Talk to that admin person again who you talked to originally who was on your side.

You should REALLY call the ACLU. This guy should not be allowed to supervise the club.

[EquALLity]

Went to the club today.

I walked in with my friend (moral support because they all hate me ), and we sat and talked until the club started. Eventually, they all got together on one side of the room and put a video on the projector about Trump's transition and who he will put in power where.
Someone asked what kinds of departments etc. Trump is appointing heads, and I mentioned the EPA.

Of course, at the mere mention of the EPA, they all lost their shit. They said it wasn't important and that we should worry about other things. I said I thought the environment was relevant.
"But doesn't the environment impact America?"
"No, not really."


So then it started...
They said that, even if climate change weren't real (which it isn't because the Earth's core is getting cooler- what ), the impacts of it won't happen for a very long time. It won't impact people today. So I mentioned that people in the third world are already losing their homes due to rising sea levels, and one person looked up how much the ocean rises per year, and it was like 3.2 mm or something. They drew it on the board, and somehow calculated that, with that number, that sea levels will rise less than the length of my hand in a MILLION years.
I pointed out that things add up and that that number is not static; as the Earth gets exponentially warmer, sea ice melts exponentially, making sea levels rise exponentially.

Then, one of them looked up how much sea levels will rise in 100 years, and it was from 2.5 to 6.5 inches. And they thought it'd rise a few inches in a MILLION YEARS.

When I pointed out that 97.1% of scientists believe in man-made climate change, they were like, "BUT DID THEY ASK ALL SCIENTISTS? HOW DO YOU THEY WEREN'T BIASED?" Hahahahahahahaha

Then, somehow the topic became me hijacking their meeting or something (by disagreeing with them?), and one of them outright said that he personally believes only republicans should be allowed at the club.
They were all yelling at once and it was an absolute mess.

After it was over, my friend made this nice speech to the adviser that I got on video:
"...It's about the meeting today. I'm not a democrat or republican, I'm just kinda like, whatever candidate looks good to me. I thought, I don't mean to be offensive, but I thought your students were very unprofessional."
"Unfriendly."
"No, not unfriendly. Well, yes unfriendly and unprofessional. They were yelling at us, and they were all talking over each other, in fact laughing at us, and if we were to do that in our club, well would be called jackasses. So, if we had a club."
"That's why maybe this isn't the best place for you. This is the way these guys are. It's their club, they don't have girls in the room, not that it's a sexist thing, but when there's only-"
Me: *astounded* "What?"
"I came to just to get another idea."
"No, I'm just telling you, what I'm telling you is you're not gonna change the club. You're either gonna join it or don't join it, but you don't have the right to change it. That's the way they are."
Me: "Yeah but all I did was disagree with them."
"I don't wanna change it, I just came to get a different idea, and I agreed with some of, like a couple of, the things they were saying. But the way they went about themselves made me wanna in fact run away from the -"
"And I don't blame you."
"And I in fact am very afraid of this club."
"You don't have to be afraid, you just don't have to come."
"No, they scared me, they were yelling at me."
"But if you weren't here, they won't yell at you." WTF? Are you kidding me?
Me: *again, astounded* "If we weren't here, they won't yell at us?"
"Yes."
Me: "But shouldn't they just not yell?"
"Listen, if this is not a place that you're comfortable, you don't come. But you don't have the right to expect them to change themselves to fit your needs."
"No, but what I mean is-"
"You're right. Your needs will not be suited here. There's no doubt about it." (Damn, he sounds horrible when he says this)
Me: *extremely, tremendously astounded * "Wait, what? Why not?"
"Because it's, it's like a locker-room club. I don't like the idea that there's no girls here, but because there aren't, it's like a locker room every week." Do conservatives just call everything they do wrong 'locker-room talk'?
Me: *BAFFLED* "But that's, but that's not-"
"It's not a comfortable place right now, and I don't see that changing."
Me: "But you're the adviser. I mean, shouldn't you make sure that they don't?"
"That they don't what? Have their own place?"
Me: "That they don't yell, and that they don't kick out students - I mean, they kicked me out because I was a democrat."
"They didn't kick you out today."
Me: *confuzzled* "Not today, but they did it before."
"Let's not keep going back over that. That was a special meeting and they said, we're having a party today, can you please let us only have our members. It's a closed door meeting, it's a party."
Me: "But they said it's because they were republicans. And they said it was a closed meeting for only republicans."
"They meant club members, they didn't mean party."
"----- Can we go please?"
Me: "Ok."
*my friend walks out and I go with, but he keeps talking and I stay while recording*

"Remember the example I gave before. You probably would agree that the kids who run around saying abortion is murder shouldn't be walking into a special meeting of a pro-choice club and hijacking their meeting agenda."
"How did I hijack the meeting? First of all, all I did was walk in."
"The example or the real one?"
"The real situation, how was I hijacking their meeting by walking into the room?"
"Because it wouldn't have been a party. It would have been a debate."
"Why?"
"Cause you were there not as someone to celebrate, to be happy that Trump won."
"...So you think that I couldn't go because I didn't support Trump."
"No, you were asked not to be there because you didn't support the agenda of the meeting, which is a party celebrating the election of Trump."
"But, that just sounds like another way of saying I couldn't be there because I don't support Trump."
"No because you weren't a member of the club, and that you weren't there for the agenda of the meeting."
"Which was supporting Trump, right?"
"Yes."
"So because I couldn't support Trump, you think that - you're agreeing with me right?"
"For that one meeting, if you didn't support the agenda, which was having a party to celebrate the election and Trump and the overwhelming republican win."
"Yes. That is their... win."
"If you're not here for that purpose, can you please come next week. I know they didn't say it the right way, but that's really what the message was."
"But you can't really have a closed meeting of only people who agree with you politically."
"Not a club, I agree with you."
"But it is a club."
"I will never support the club can close their doors to people they don't agree with. But can they have a single meeting, once or twice a year, when they say today's meeting is for club members only."
"But it was of Trump winning, and they wanted only students who agree with Trump to be there. It wasn't because I wasn't a member. And I've been there before."
"Because if you were a member, we would know you do support Trump, and we wouldn't question why you were here."
"So you're saying that you only - you only have members who support Trump?"
...
"What was her name, I apologize, I didn't get her name."
"Felix."
"So, it's hard to get this message out, but Felix, I agree with her. Or him."
"They."
"So don't use pronouns."
"Sort of."
"Felix should not be made to feel uncomfortable anywhere. But the reality is that, this environment isn't going to change easily. And you can't expect it to change the first day you're here. And it's certainly not going to change if -"
*video stops, not sure why*

Wow, so... Yeah.
He went on to agree that they partially kicked me out because I'm liberal, blatantly, but said that again it's because they thought I'm liberal therefore I'd start a debate and change the meeting from party to debate. As if they're forced to debate me.
It's pretty unbelievable. Looking over that video, he was basically saying, "You're not welcome here" to us.
Just... Ew.

[miniboes]

May I ask why you want to be in that club?

[brimstoneSalad]

Seriously, you need to call the ACLU. Your administration isn't going to do anything about this.

[EquALLity]

May I ask why you want to be in that club?

This is the wrong question to ask.
It doesn't matter why I personally want to be in the club. It matters that they kicked me out because of my political beliefs.

But since you're asking, I like to learn new perspectives by discussing things with people who disagree with me.

[EquALLity]

Seriously, you need to call the ACLU. Your administration isn't going to do anything about this.

But shouldn't I tell them before contacting the ACLU?