A packed anti-mask protest was held at Lyons Township High School.
A packed anti-mask protest was held at Lyons Township High School.
A group of anti-mask protestors rallied despite being turned away from Lyons Township High School after school officials.
The anti-mask protest was planned for Tuesday, Oct. 19 and was a follow-up to an earlier action undertaken by children at the school.
"They locked us out and told us the event was cancelled," Lindsay Dillon, a parent, said. "[The school] was telling attendees that it was cancelled and to go home."
GOP gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine
Dillon, the parent of 15-year-old sophomore Addisyn Schaefer who was detained after the first protest last month, said school officials initially agreed to host the protest in the performing arts center but backed out as participants began to show up.
“We were supposed to be inside the school, but when we started arriving last night at 7 p.m., the school locked the doors and told everyone that the event was cancelled," Dillon said. "They refused to let [Turning Point USA] hold the event there. It was never cancelled,” Dillon said.
Dillon said she is disappointed in the school.
“It was amazing but the fact that the school tried to shut it down was insane,” she said, explaining that the group improvised by going to a shelter across the street where they taped up a flag.
“The entire group—which was very large—was able to move the event across the street to the pavilion at the park,” she said. “We had to hold the event OUTSIDE from 7-8:30."
Speakers at the event included gubernatorial candidates Gary Rabine and Darren Bailey, congressional candidate Jack Lombardi and senate candidate Rob Cruz.
The protest was organized by student Leslie Mendoza who leads the local chapter of Turning Point USA, a group that has been denied official status at the school.
Mendoza recently spoke in front of the school board detailing how school officials denied TPUSA’s entrance as an official club by requiring impossible entrance requirements to make it an official club.
“The school still refuses to recognize TPUSA as a club at the school. The students have been able to hold meetings since we have a teacher involved, along with one of our school officers, who provided security for the event,” Dillon said.
The group has garnered support from the community.
Local activist William Mueller said “God bless those kids and damn the ignorant jackasses that removed them” after Lyons Township High School disbanded the group of student activists who gathered for the earlier protest.
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