Education Secretary Linda McMahon spoke at several Illinois schools on Thursday. It was part of the U.S. Department of Education’s “History Rocks! Trail to Independence” tour.
She started the day at a private school in Chicago.
“It's totally non-partisan," she said during the stop to describe the tour. "It is just absolutely about civics."
In the afternoon, McMahon visited Genoa-Kingston High School with Turning Point USA's Erika Kirk, the widow of organization founder Charlie Kirk.
There had been rumors circulating on social media throughout the week that McMahon and Kirk would be part of the Genoa-Kingston event.
Genoa-Kingston senior Landon Boehmer attended the event and says he felt like it was partisan.
"It just felt like this wasn't educational at all. You're handing me a bracelet that says ‘We are Charlie Kirk,’ I'm just trying to learn about America's history,” Boehmer said.
He and other students said it mainly focused on Charlie Kirk's vision for Club America, Turning Point’s student group that organized the event, as well as Christianity and “traditional values.”
Boehmer says speakers barely touched on history, outside a couple of quick trivia questions. He says they gave out Turning Point backpacks, and there were "Trump" chants.
Other students who attended said it did measure up to their expectations and that they felt inspired as Erika Kirk spoke about leadership.
Boehmer says he couldn't ask Kirk or McMahon questions because he said it appeared that they were only taking questions from Club America members.
Some students said they were grateful their school was chosen, while others said it’s divided their small high school.
A student who left school before the event wore a handmade shirt to school that said, "I came to learn, not to feel targeted."
Media were not allowed into the school, but were allowed to wait in a "staging area" in the school's parking lot.
Students say some of their peers decided not to come to school because of the event; that a few teachers canceled quizzes because of the lack of attendance, while others offered extra credit to attend.
The tour is part of the Education Department's celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. They helped create a group called the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, which includes a host of conservative groups like Turning Point USA, Prager U, and the Heritage Foundation.
The coalition's launch video says: "American education was once a shining light guiding generations, built on faith, heritage, patriotism. But over the past 60–70 years, that brilliance has been dimmed," and that "a great institution has been crumbled from within; overtaken by those who teach hatred for America, false revisionist history, and division.”
