Note: Gina and Juju asked to only use last initials for the sake of anonymity.
Pennsbury High School’s Youth Democratic Socialists of America chapter aims to improve the lives of their peers, and they have already started to make a difference.
At the end of the 2025-26 academic year, a Club America chapter — Turning Point USA’s high school program — started gaining traction at the school. Gina L., co-chair of Pennsbury’s YDSA, said that the right-wing organization was actively advertising and holding meetings. Other students wanted a place for others on the political spectrum to share their ideas.
“We decided that there should be a space for people of a different political ideology to share their viewpoints in a fair democratic manner,” Gina said. “So we established Pennsbury YDSA to be that space for people who are on the left side to work through issues and find a space for community.”
On February 11, 2026, the group officially held their first meeting. Today there are currently 28 active members in Pennsbury YDSA.
READ: Is Turning Point USA a Trojan Horse of Right-wing Extremism for Pennridge Students?
At first, other students in the school were not aware of the chapter. To change that, the members employed a tried and true method for in-person outreach, tabling at the high school.
The group set up outside the cafeteria once a week, every other week, to engage with students and learn about any concerns they had.
“People eventually kind of understood who we were based on us being active in our community and being the people that people could come to if they had issues,” Gina said.
Through these conversations, a recurring problem emerged that would eventually become the chapter’s ongoing campaign: to cancel student lunch debt.
Pennsbury High School currently has $139,000 of student lunch debt, according to a petition started by the YDSA group.
Stephanie Polichtchouk, a senior and secretary for the Pennsbury YDSA, said that the organization’s progress towards their overall goal has been encouraging.
One of the chapter’s biggest achievements was getting Oxford Valley Elementary School — another school in the district — on Community Eligibility Provision, a federal program that provides free meals to high-poverty schools. This move effectively canceled all previous existing lunch debt.
“We made it possible by communicating to the school board that we noticed that some schools that are eligible for the CEP program weren’t on it, and they looked into it and got schools approved,” Polichtchouk said.
Currently, the group is planning with the administration to schedule a walkout to protest student lunch debt.
Overall the community has been receptive since the chapter’s inception, according to Juju E., a junior and the other co-chair of the club. However, the group has faced some opposition, from both inside and out of the school.
Juju said that there was some initial pushback from the administration when trying to get the Pennsbury YDSA officially recognized as a club. Outside threats forced a February planned walkout protesting federal immigration enforcement to move inside and members were harassed online for their support of Palestine.
READ: Why I Support Pennsbury High School Students Protesting ICE
Additionally in October, Broad + Liberty — a self-described “right-of-center” media outlet — accused the club’s advisor of pushing his ideological viewpoints onto students.
Right now though, Pennsbury YDSA is staying focused on what they can do, organizing internally and making material change for other students.
“At the end of the day, our goal is just to improve the conditions of the school community,” Juju said. “So we’re just kind of focused on that.”
This article was funded in part by the Sylvia W. and Randle M. Kauders Foundation.
