Harrison Student Starts Conservative Political Club

HARRISON, NY — Harrison High School now has a local chapter of Young Americans For Freedom, and the national organization is celebrating.

Luke Wong, now a junior, spent two years trying to get a club started, working with YAF and the national Alliance Defending Freedom.

YAF officials said ADF lawyers sent a letter to school board President Kelly Mangan in June saying "Harrison High’s failure to recognize YAF is blatantly illegal under the Equal Access Act and First Amendment, both of which guarantee YAF’s right to equal footing with the other student clubs in Harrison School District."

The lawyers also asked district officials to "immediately place a litigation hold on all e-mail accounts, document collections, social media accounts, and all other sources of information or communications (including electronically stored information) that reference in any way Young Americans for Freedom or Mr. Luke Wong."

Louis N. Wool Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools told Patch that Harrison High School followed the same review process for the Young Americans for Freedom club application that is applied to all extracurricular clubs.

"The District requested modifications to the original club proposal because it appeared that membership was not open to all students, which is a requirement for all extracurricular clubs," Wool said in a statement. "The applicant modified the club proposal and the application was subsequently approved."

Through the review process, the group was offered the opportunity to meet at the high school as an independent student group to ensure interested students could meet and share their views, he said.

"The District encourages student participation in a range of extracurricular clubs to explore varied interests and perspectives, broaden friendships, and support active engagement beyond the classroom," Wool said.

Official Harrison High School clubs have some privileges including reserving and using rooms for meetings, using bulletin boards to recruit members and announce events, being listed on the school website and fundraising on campus.