Turning Point USA (TPUSA) spokesman and Lipscomb Academy community member Savannah Chrisley said on Tuesday that the recent controversy over the response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk by the K-12 Christian school could jeopardize the 1904 deed granting land to Lipscomb University.
Chrisley made the suggestion during a Monday appearance on “The Benny Show,” when she told host Benny Johnson that the school’s initial decision to prohibit students from wearing red ties and suit jackets to honor Kirk, followed by the two protests organized by faculty when an administrator behind the decision was reassigned, could jeopardize the school’s right to its campus.
“We have been in contact with the heirs of David Lipscomb,” said Chrisley, referring to the founder of the university who deeded the land to the school in 1904. “He stated in the deed that if the school is not ran how he intended it to run, then it needs to be handed back to his rightful heirs.”
Chrisley told Johnson of the heirs, “I think they’re happy to know that the school is falling apart because this could be millions and millions of dollars in their pocket.”
She later clarified that Lipscomb University, “could actually be taken from them and given back to the rightful heirs of David Lipscomb, because they are not running as a Church of Christ school.”
Lipscomb Academy operates under the same legal entity as Lipscomb University, which was deeded the land for its campus by Lipscomb in 1904, more than a decade after James A. Harding founded Lipscomb University.
The 1904 deed is publicly viewable on the university’s website, and though handwritten in faded ink, it appears to specify, “The land hereby conveyed is to be used for maintaining a school in which the Bible shall be taught daily as a part of the regular course of instruction and in which the moral and religious training of the pupils shall receive special attention according to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and for no other purpose whatever.”
It further states, “Should said land ever cease to be so used or be used for any other purpose then the title hereby conveyed shall revert to the grantors or their heirs.”
Lipscomb’s only child did not survive infancy, meaning any living heirs who may be able to lay claim to the university’s grounds would likely be descended from one of his siblings.
A spokesman for the university did not respond to a Tuesday request by The Tennessee Star to comment on whether it considered this legal claim to be valid.
Chrisley told Johnson that the controversy over the school’s response Kirk’s assassination is only the latest troubling development at Lipscomb Academy.
She noted, as The Star reported earlier this month, “You have the head of the school that wrote his dissertation in college on implementing DEI in southern, Christian, private schools,” said Chrisley.
Chrisley later compared the school’s response to the public assassination of Kirk to the death in police custody of George Floyd.
“During George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, the school sent out emails, ‘We feel so bad that your student had to witness the death of George Floyd, here are resources for them,'” said Chrisley. “They did not offer that for Charlie, instead, a month later, they held an event to honor him and it only lasted 23 minutes.”
Lipscomb Academy recently confirmed to The Star that Chrisley and a Lipscomb Academy parent were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements prior to attending a meeting with Lipscomb University President Candice McQueen.
Watch Chrisley’s full interview with Johnson:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Savannah Chrisley and Benny Johnson” by Benny Johnson.Â
Until these universities and schools receive consequences for their actions and non-actions in complying with their mandates, they will continue to violate them. Just as children and older juveniles continue to push limits after warnings. I encourage any Lipscomb heirs to look into the possibility of Lipscomb University being evicted after the administration’s allowing this flouting of their benefactor’s instructions for use of his gift.
Don’t cave on this Christy. I believe you have a strong case.