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Chris Pettinella, the President and founder of The Edmund Burke Society at Trumbull High School ("THS"), finally earned the opportunity to put up a conservative bulletin board in the high school, providing balance to the SHADES Club bulletin board that featured Kamala Harris.
All it took was years of jumping through hoops, some unwanted media attention for the school, and choosing a name for the club that was "less political" sounding than, for instance, the "Conservative Club" or the "Young Republicans Club."
Pettinella described THS as left-leaning, said the teachers were left-leaning, and alleged the school was actually indoctrinating students, which probably shouldn't be a surprise considering the Connecticut Department of Education has warmly embraced DEI and seemingly pushes equity at every opportunity.
The bias led Pettinella to want to start a conservative club -- to provide equal representation -- that was his goal. And fortunately he found support from at least one teacher, Jeff Jones, the Spanish teacher.
But that didn't make the process of getting his club or a bulletin board for his club easy.
As the Centinal previously reported, Pettinella experienced issues with the Dean of Students who seemed to be discriminating against him, and even suggested that his club would have to pay $1,000 to have a bulletin board. He says he asked the Dean of Students hundreds of times for approval, but the Dean dragged his feet and often said he didn't have time to discuss the request for a conservative club. It's hard to imagine the Dean's actions were not politically-motivated, charged Pettinella, who felt the Dean's behavior was designed to discourage him from starting a conservative club.
"If any club had to go through what I had to do to get my club, there would be little to no clubs," said Pettinella. "No one I know would persevere as hard as I did for what they believe in, and it's sad... I'm not sure many other people would do that given the amount of backlash this administration has given me."
Pettinella is encouraging students in other schools to start conservative clubs, recognizing that's how change starts -- "there will be no change, unless you start it" he wisely says.
But the best part of the story is that The Edmund Burke Society finally has a bulletin board in the school.
The bulletin board features the now infamous picture of Donald Trump after he was shot at the Butler rally, with his fist in the air as he shouted "fight fight fight." The board positively promotes Trump's accomplishments and "what a good guy he is" -- an incredibly rare and wonderfully refreshing thing to see in a Connecticut school.
Pettinella even debunks some fake news about Trump on his bulletin board, showing that Trump is not the racist bad guy the liberal mainstream media has made him out to be.
He says he's got more work to do, and some improvements he wants to make, but he's off to a great start. Pettinella hopes more students are inspired to follow his lead, and take on their own school administrations to fight for equal representation.
A special thanks goes to Palin Smith, the man behind "Connecticut for Trump" on Facebook and scores of Trump rallies around the state, for taking the time to interview Pettinella in person and highlight his incredibly inspiring story!
