Conservative teen girls stand their ground against hostile St. Louis ‘No Kings’ crowd

Two teenage girls holding homemade signs supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents found themselves up against an angry crowd of “No Kings” protesters in St. Louis last month, braving screaming adults and even being spat upon by a grown man.

Reagan Pullium, a senior at St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Louis, walked to the very front of the March 28 downtown protest with her 14-year-old sister raising signs that said, “ICE IS GOOD” and “Thank You ICE.” 

Protesters blew whistles and used megaphones to shout them down.

“They blew whistles in our ears. Whistles like the ones that you see on the videos that they blow in the ears of ICE agents as they’re on the job. So now I know what that feels like, and it is not a pleasant sound,” Pullium told Heartlander News. 

One full-grown man repeatedly yelled at the girls and spat on them. Other protesters eventually had to physically hold back the man.

“There was one guy in particular who kept coming up to us, and he would spit on us and started yelling at me and my sister,” Pullium said. “The people that he was with were having to hold him back telling him, ‘It’s not worth it.’” 

Police officers standing nearby helped them feel safe despite the hostile environment.

“Luckily, the police were standing next to us, and they were all sort of giving us thumbs up,” Pullium said. “We both felt very safe, and we held up our signs in front of the protest. As you can imagine, it was not well received. I didn’t think we would be, and I was OK with that.” 

“People were screaming at us, telling us we didn’t care about our uteruses and we had sacrificed all of our rights as women, including our right to vote with the SAVE Act, which is completely incorrect,” Pullium said. “It just really made both of us very sad that there’s such a miscommunication and a lack of clear information in our country.” 

Pullium did experience a brief moment of understanding. A protester stood inches from her face intentionally blocking her sign with his own. Pullium asked him whether he thought his rights were being taken away by President Donald Trump. He said they were. Then, she revealed to the protester that he was taking away her right of freedom of expression by covering up her sign. 

“It actually surprised me that he was receptive of what I had said, and he put down his sign and he walked away from me,” Pullium said. 

Pullium regularly attends pro-life marches and notices a massive difference in how the two sides behave to counter-protesters. 

“Every time I’ve attended a march, the people that I’ve been with who are very clearly pro-life … everyone there is smiling,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful place to be.

“At the No Kings protest, no one is coming up to you just out of curiosity, trying to have a respectful conversation. People are trying to tell you how wrong you are.”

Setting the record straight and setting an example

St. Louis Public Radio quoted Pullium at the “No Kings” protest, but she believes its report failed to provide the full context of her views, wrongly implying she believed the message that America was founded upon immigrants is “outdated.” 

“America was built on legal immigration, and I don’t like the perspective of the left saying that conservatives don’t support immigration,” Pullium told Heartlander News. “I strongly support legal immigration. There’s a difference.” 

Pullium says she wants to model bravery for her sister and other young conservative women who might be apprehensive to speak their minds. 

“We both were raised with a very strong respect for law enforcement,” Pullium said. “I’m hoping to join the military after I graduate high school, and so when I see certain federal law enforcement agencies just completely disrespected, when the work they do is negatively [discussed] in the media, I really feel that I have a responsibility to go out there and show them that there are people who support them.” 

No arrests were reported in St. Louis for the weekend protest, but other cities put protesters in cuffs.

(Image credit: Photos by Jack Auer)