Page:Gruber v. Bruce.pdf/2

 Summary Judgment will be granted and Plaintiffs’ Motion will be denied.

Dr. Julia Gruber is a tenured Associate Professor of German at TTU, while Mr. Andrew Smith is a tenured Instructor in the Department of English at that institution. (PSOF ¶¶ 1, 2). Dr. Lori Bruce is the Provost at TTU and Vice President for Academic Affairs. (Doc. No. 56-9, Bruce Dep. at 22).

In 2021, a student chapter of Turning Point USA (“TPUSA”) was established at TTU. TPUSA s [sic] is a national organization with a presence at many college campuses across the United States. It came to TTU after Gittle Sciolis, a student at the school, filed a petition to make TPUSA a student club. Ms. Sciolis has described the club as a “conservative organization for college students [and] high school students” with a mission “to spread conservative ideas.” (PSOF ¶¶ 17–19). For their part, Plaintiffs believe that TPUSA is a racist organization and “national hate group” with “ties to white supremacy.” ( ¶ 20). Dr. Andrew Donadio (“Dr. Donadio”), a County Commissioner and an Assistant Professor of Nursing, serves as TPUSA’s faculty advisor at TTTUTTU [sic]. ( ¶ 3).

On February 4, 2021, the Putnam County School Board held a meeting to consider whether a committee should be appointed to look into the issue of whether Algood Middle School’s mascot should be renamed from “Redskins” to something else. ( ¶ 4). Dr. Gruber attended the meeting with some friends, including Sayota Knight, who Plaintiffs claim is Native American. ( ¶ 5).