An Albemarle County School Board member has joined the growing list of public figures under fire for remarks made in the wake of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Allison Spillman, the at-large member on the county’s school board, is facing criticism and calls for her resignation after penning a Facebook post Tuesday that compared Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization to the Ku Klux Klan.
Spillman’s post was in response to the Turning Point USA chapter at Western Albemarle High School — the largest in Virginia — inviting Victoria Cobb to speak to students during lunch this past Wednesday.
Cobb is the president of the Family Foundation, a Richmond-based nonprofit organization that advocates “policies based on Biblical principles.” She is a vocal proponent of conversion therapy for LGBTQ youths and a vocal opponent of the “radical LGBTQ+ agenda” which she has said targets children.
Cobb’s Wednesday itinerary included a presentation titled, “Two Genders, One Truth.”
“As a school board member and proud parent of a trans student, I am beyond livid,” Spillman posted on her private Facebook page Tuesday. “In my opinion this is not a matter of free speech, it’s hate speech and has no place in our schools. If the KKK wanted a speaker during lunch, would we allow that as well?”
Even before Spillman made her post, Cobb’s visit had proven controversial.
Upon being delivered a flyer for the event on Sept. 25, Western Albemarle Principal Jennifer Sublette met with the school’s Turning Point USA chapter president, senior Noah Coffin, and told him Cobb would have to visit after school hours, as the presentation topic was too “complex,” “controversial” and “mature,” according to multiple people familiar with the matter. She told Coffin she feared it would disrupt students if presented during school hours.
The next day, the school division received a letter from Michael Sylvester, an attorney with the Founding Freedoms Law Center representing Turning Point USA. Sylvester told administrators Sublette had violated not only division policy but the law.
“The School’s action constituted clear, impermissible viewpoint discrimination, especially when the Supreme Court has acknowledged that speech on issues such as ‘sexual orientation and gender identity … undoubtedly’ addresses matters of ‘profound value and concern to the public’ occupying ‘the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values’ and meriting ‘special protection,’” he wrote.
Relenting, administrators agreed for Cobb to appear as planned. But it was too late. With so many last-minute changes, it was no longer possible for Cobb to speak Wednesday, according to Coffin.
“Because of the county’s delay to approve Victoria Cobb, we did not have enough time to advertise our meeting and ultimately postponed to Nov. 19,” Coffin told The Daily Progress in a text message Thursday.
It was in the midst of this back-and-forth that Spillman made her post on Facebook — a post that sparked controversy and confusion itself.
Speaking with The Daily Progress on Thursday, Spillman said she wanted to set the record straight after multiple news outlets misinterpreted and misreported information.
In the first place, she said, the post never appeared on her public Facebook page.
“This was on my personal Facebook page. Someone screenshot and shared it without my permission to outside organizations from my very private, very locked-down social media,” Spillman said.
Further, she never deleted the original post, as multiple news outlets reported.
“I did not delete my original post. It’s still on my personal page,” she said. “I’ve had to have retractions on stories about this. I never deleted it like it’s being reported. I did not get caught and take it down. But now that people can see my recent public post on my school board page, people assume I took down the old one.”
That post on Spillman’s public Facebook page, shared Wednesday, addresses the public outcry regarding her original, private post.
“I respect our students’ rights to organize clubs and explore different viewpoints; at no point have I taken a different position. At the same time, as a school board member, I take seriously my duty to protect all students, especially those who are most vulnerable to harm. That balance is not always easy, but it is essential,” she wrote.
“I would not be doing my job if I did not speak up when necessary to protect all students. I want the students at WAHS and every ACPS school to know that I have their backs, whether they are organizing to talk about politics or just trying to feel safe and validated at school.”
As she did in the public post, Spillman told The Daily Progress that her remarks were aimed at Cobb’s message and not the students who belong to the Turning Point USA chapter.
“In raising the example of the Ku Klux Klan, my intent was not to equate students involved in any club with that organization. Rather, I was drawing a parallel about the principle of setting boundaries for outside speakers who promote harmful or exclusionary ideas,” she told The Daily Progress.
Spillman, nevertheless, faces pushback. Calls for her resignation have come from parents, social media users living outside the school division and onetime Republican candidate for the House of Delegates Philip Hamilton.
“Allison Spillman’s speech is endangering the students who are part of Turning Point USA at the Western Albemarle High School and she has violated the trust of the public,” Hamilton said in a post on X that also encouraged parents to call for Spillman’s resignation at the next School Board meeting next Tuesday.
Spillman said she feels she “can’t win.”
“They’re mad about what I said originally. Now people are mad about my last statement. At this point, anything I say is going to be turned against me,” she said.
Spillman is not the first public figure in Virginia to face such a no-win situation.
Kirk, Turning Point USA’s co-founder, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah resident, has been charged with his murder. Before the assassination, Robinson told those close to him he believed Kirk was stoking politician division in the country and posed a risk to American society.
Public remarks and social media posts celebrating and mocking Kirk’s death have been widely condemned and have prompted firings and resignations across Virginia and the nation.
Chesterfield County School Board Member Dot Heffron tendered her resignation Sept. 14 after facing significant pushback over a social media post saying, “Call me old fashioned, but I remember when we used to be okay with shooting Nazis.” Among those to call for her resignation were Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
And closer to home, an Orange County High School teacher, Aaron Beck, is still under fire from parents and public figures alike for posting online, “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I’ve read some obituaries with great pleasure,” after Kirk’s death.
For now, Spillman has her job. She also has a team of volunteers helping her sort through messages “so vile the police are involved.”
Back at Western Albemarle, Coffin hopes the students who do attend Cobb’s presentation can remain civil, in spite of the chaos that has ensued.
“I hope that all students who choose to attend, regardless of personal opinions, will be able to engage respectfully as we seek to build a platform for civil political discussion,” he said.
Heather Price Ives
hives@dailyprogress.com
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Heather Price Ives
Outer Counties Reporter
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