College Bars Student From Forming Conservative Club

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- A Hagerstown Community College student says the school is violating her First Amendment rights by barring her from starting a campus chapter of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA.

College officials told The Herald-Mail Wednesday that Moriah DeMartino can join the existing Political Science Club. They say school policy prohibits new student clubs that duplicate the mission and purpose of existing clubs.

DeMartino, a third-year political science major, says the policy is arbitrary and unconstitutional.

Turning Point is a nonprofit group that trains and organizes students to promote fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. The group says it has distributed materials on 1,000 college campuses nationwide.

The story was first reported Aug. 26 by Campus Reform, an online project of the Arlington, Virginia-based Leadership Institute.
---------------
(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)