Originally published in print in November 2025. View print issues here.

On Sept. 10, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for all flags at public buildings and grounds to be flown at half-mast in honor of Charlie Kirk’s death. At Branham, the flag outside of the main office was flown at half-mast after Trump’s order.

Kirk, founder and CEO of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, was a right-wing political activist known for debating college students. Kirk was a controversial public figure, due to his comments regarding abortion, immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. 

Junior Charlotte Homer explains how she feels about what Kirk and the administration preached.

“I don’t believe that what ideals Kirk and the administration preached were within my beliefs,” Homer said. For example, reproductive freedom — I believe that no matter what, it should be the person’s choice to have the child.”

Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University while hosting a Turning Point event. Flags were kept half-mast until sunset on Sept. 14.

The government is very selective when deciding who to lower the flag for. The honor is usually reserved for the deaths of military officers, government officials and victims of tragedies. 

“It upsets a lot of people because if you put the flags at half-mast in a way that is deeply memorable of Kirk, people could also be like, ‘There’s been hundreds of school shootings in our country over the past year. There’s been so many children that have died as well. If we put so much emphasis or praise onto one person, what about everyone else that died that people don’t seem to care about?’” Homer said.

Senior Brady Clark argues the impact Kirk had on the youth and in politics necessitated lowering the flag in his honor. 

“The political impact that Charlie Kirk had was significant enough to lower the flag because he was really able to connect with youth, especially college students,” Clark said. “Lowering the flag for him was understandable.”

When the government wants the flag to be lowered for someone, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) receives the order, and it is their responsibility to lower the flag accordingly. ROTC is a college-based program that gives participating students military readiness training. Silbergeld receives a notification but does not have control over lowering the flag. 

Company commander of ROTC Aiden Gulo described the process for raising and lowering the flag when orders are received. 

“The first couple of people who arrive at school sometimes put up the flags before 7:45 a.m., and when school finishes after seventh period, we have three to four cadets lower them,” Gulo said.

On the same day that Kirk got shot, a school shooting occurred at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. Senior Alexi Bentford, Personal Affairs Officer for ROTC, notes that while there was a school shooting in Colorado on the same day of Kirk’s assassination, the flag was only lowered in his honor, which raises the question of what the government chooses to memorialize.

“I feel like the government, people are just glossing over [the school shooting],” Bentford said. 

Telling public schools to bring their flags to half-mast demonstrates the government controlling schools through funding when they imply that they want certain announcements. Clark thinks that while the federal government has power when it comes to financial means, the directions they give can be taken by schools how they wish.

“I don’t think not lowering the flag would revoke funding,” Clark said. “I just think it would show a sign of disrespect and a sign of not willing to honor his legacy and remember who he was.”

When former President Jimmy Carter died in December 2024 and former Vice President Dick Cheney died on Nov. 3 this year, flags were lowered to half-mast nationwide, including at Branham, to honor their legacies. While some believe that Kirk didn’t deserve the flag to be lowered for his death, Clark argued that his relationship with the current president had some part in it.

“I think [lowering the flag] is a case-by-case scenario,” Clark said. “The president was close with Charlie Kirk, and he had a big impact on the whole country, so I think it was deserved for him.”