West Cook News

Leslie Mendoza, a Lyons High School student, is president of her school’s Turning Point USA chapter.

Despite her perseverance, the school rejected her application for official club status.

In comments to the school board describing anti-conservative bias at the school, Mendoza said the club first applied for the status in January but has been repeatedly denied solely on political grounds. 

“So what is it? What is it? Why is it that as soon as people speak up and express a difference in opinion they're immediately shut down?” Mendoza said. “What happened to inclusiveness and acceptance? There used to be a time in our nation where people could openly express themselves no matter where they fell on the political spectrum. There used to be a time where you could say that you were proud of having the privilege of being an American without being called a white supremacist.” 

Mendoza said TPUSA focuses on the benefits of the free market, limited government and the principles of freedom.

“Most kids my age don't learn those anymore,” she said. 

She said an anonymous group of students filed a petition to block her chapter of TPUSA from being established. 

“In the months following the submission of our proposal, a group of students who called themselves 'concerned students,' anonymously created a petition on change.org to keep hateful organizations out of Lyons Township High School, Mendoza said.  

“The group received 600 signatures from students and community members within three months. They sent the petition to The District Board of Education, the superintendent, principal. And they demanded that they deny our proposal.” 

She said faculty members later opposed them from within and without cause. 

“Our director of Student Activities then claimed that the school cannot and will not allow 501(c)3 to be official clubs,” Mendoza said. “If you were to all go to the school website right now look at the list of clubs 10 of them would be 501(c)(3)s.” 

Mendoza helped plan an anti-mask protest in September. 

The protest was promoted anonymously, with flyers containing an email from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, claiming that masks did not protect against the coronavirus.

Аfter the first protest on Sept. 25, which was broken up by school officials, during which several students were detained, the organizers did not give up. 

Mendoza is now preparing for a new protest on Oct. 19. 

The event is being organizers by the local Turning Point USA chapter. Anyone interested in the protest can register on the link. Organizers encourage supporters to share the link

Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), Senate candidate Rob Cruz, Congressional candidate Jack Lombardi, Freedom Initiative Now Chairman Nick Richmond and TPUSA ambassador Lexi Lach are expected to speak at the event.

See a full transcript of Leslie’s speech below:

Good evening, my name is Leslie Mendoza I'm a senior and the president of the Turning Point USA chapter here at LT. 

Turning Point USA is a nonprofit organization that focuses on teaching students about the benefits of the free-market, limited government, the principles of freedom and American values in general. Most kids my age don't learn those anymore.

Earlier this year on Jan. 3 of 2021 my executive team began the process of starting this new club here at school. Unfortunately as expected we received immediate backlash from the community and our fellow classmates made it clear that they would not tolerate our chapter on campus. 

In the months following the submission of our proposal a group of students who called themselves “concerned students”, anonymously created a petition on change.org to keep hateful organizations out of Lyons Township High School. 

The group received 600 signatures from students and community members within three months. They sent the petition to The District Board of Education, the superintendent, the principal. And they demanded that they deny our proposal. Many of the students who signed this petition, even the creators were later found sending heinous messages to our conservative team members. 

We find it ironic your comments telling us that 'there's no point in being alive' if we're going to dedicate ourselves to such stupid causes. The same students who preaches tolerance and acceptance for all. 

Members in our team are targeted daily, threatened and have been verbally attacked in public simply because they're openly conservative.

Students and community members aren't the only people who have tried to keep us off campus. After 6 long months, on June 4 of 2021 the director of Student Activities let us know that the stipend committee had officially denied our proposal. Initially the only reason for this decision was that the organization was a part of a partisan political nature. Knowing that there are several  official clubs that are partisan, we quickly questioned the reasoning and immediately made it clear that there had been a major mistake. 

The only reason the stipend committee had denied our proposal was invalid. You’d think that a simple mistake like this would be avoided after 6 months of having our proposal. 

Turning Point USA by definition is non-partisan due to the fact that it focuses on ideas and not a certain party. We legally have to be non-partisan considering the fact that we're a non-profit 501c3.

After hearing this our director of Student Activities then claimed that the school cannot and will not allow 501(c)3 to be official clubs. If you were to all go to the school website right now, look at the list of clubs 10 of them would be 501c3s. 

So what is it? What is it? Why is it that as soon as people speak up express a difference in opinion they're immediately shut down? What happened to inclusiveness and acceptance? There used to be a time in our nation where people could openly express themselves no matter where they fell on the political spectrum. There used to be a time where you could say that you were proud of being of having the privilege of being an American without being called a white supremacist.