South Group Planning Santorum Visit Fledgling Organization

Grosse Pointe South's chapter of Young Americans for Freedom began planning the visit by Rick Santorum with the national organization immediately after gaining official sanctioning by the school.

Principal Matt Outlaw told Patch Wednesday the group gained official status in February, which gives them access to more resources within the school such as student announcements.

Meanwhile, a representative for the national organization, Adam Tragone, said Wednesday the South chapter first contacted the national organization in early March regarding the speech by Santorum.

The events evolving this week concerning the Santorum speech—its cancellation and then reinstatement with an opt-in option for parents and staff—have elicited strong reaction from not only residents within the Grosse Pointes but also from political activists far from the community.

Of course, some of the political views held by Santorum are a target of some reaction but also at issue are freedom of speech, politics during the school day and the ability of the student organziation to host a speaker during school days.

In reviewing the history of assemblies at South with Outlaw, he said the homecoming assembly is the only steadfast. This year, just before spring break the students did have an assembly with featured speaker Reggie Dabbs, a motivational speaker who is known among schools and speaks all over the world.

Dabbs was the result of work by several student leaders who have begun an "all in movement," which they refer to as AIM. The group involves the leaders of other sanctioned clubs at the school working together to achieve more unity among the student population. It is not a sanctioned or official group itself, Outlaw said.

Another issue being heavily discussed among readers is the $18,000, which was referred to repeatedly as being raised by students from the South chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, commonly referred to as YAF. The claim that the money was raised by the South students themselves was made directly by the South Chairman Langston Bowens on Twitter this week.

Tragone said Wednesday the $18,000 is coming from their organization at the national level. The payment of speaking engagement fees is generally paid for by the national organization, he said, and in many cases speakers may even do it for free as a result of their developed relationship with the national organization.

The $18,000 is intended to pay Santorum but also cover other expenses, Tragone said. Organizing speeches at schools--the majority of which are college campuses--is the national non-profit's "bread and butter," Tragone said. The organization exists based on donations, he said.

At the request of Patch, Tragone found a list of speaking engagement that occurred at high schools other than the scheduled Grosse Pointe South event. They include:

• author Amity Shlaes at Providence Academy in 2009
• columnist Deroy Murdock at Deerfield Academy in 2008
• Lt. Col. Scott Rutter at Halifax High in 2006
• Dinesh D'Souza at Indian Creek in 2001

A quick internet search shows the organization schedules a high number of speaking engagements at the college level. Tragone, who is a newer employee of the national organization, said he was unaware of such controversy happening related to one of their scheduled speeches specifically in a high school environment in the past as there has been in Grosse Pointe.

He noted some of the speakers have been "attacked" during their speech related to topics being discussed but said there has never been controversy related to the planning and scheduling.

The 280 "very active" local chapters are primarily at colleges, he said. Tragone could not specify whether the speeches at high schools were performed during the school day or afterward. He said such a decision would be made on a case-by-case basis.

At least one local attorney commented on Patch related to the decision to host Santorum, even with the opt-in option, as a move that then opens the school day to any type of speaker from any student group.

Neither Tragone nor South's local chapter vice chairman Peter Fox believe the goal of bringing Santorum to speak was a big deal. Fox told Patch late Tuesday the group had been looking to bring in a speaker related to the anniversary of when Martin Luther King Jr. came to speak at South, which was after school.

The local chapter, Fox said, worked hard to become sanctioned as an official club at South--only gaining that status after the Gay-Straight Alliance was granted official status.

Fox said the group, which originally began a few years ago as a young republicans group, made the change to YAF to gain the financial support it could offer. The lack of financial support made it hard to plan events, he said.

A policy committee meeting from March 27 addressed the topic of authorized student groups related to both board policies and administration policies, according to an agenda on the district's website. Minutes for that meeting or previous policy committee meetings were not available online late Wednesday.