'Not The Most Liked Kid At LT'

LA GRANGE, IL – Leslie Mendoza, the leader of a conservative student group at Lyons Township High School, acknowledges she won't win any popularity contests on campus.

At Monday's school board meeting, Mendoza said she attended an "equity and belonging" meeting on campus last week.

The meeting was focused on eliminating hate at the school. Yet she said she heard other students whisper about her.

"I hate to say it, but I'm not the most liked kid at LT," the senior said. "But I have absolutely no problem with that. I'm going to stand for freedom, and I will defend this country and the Constitution that our nation was built on."

Afterward, Mendoza said, some of the same students whispering "hateful things" went home and made the same comments on social media.

She said the school is quick to jump on other instances of hate, but not when the targets are conservative students. Such students have brought these issues to administrators, who have done nothing, she said.

"There are so many students that have come to me and brought to my attention that they're afraid in class if they have conservative ideologies," Mendoza said. "It shouldn't be like that."

Over the last year, the administration has twice rejected Mendoza's effort to get official club status for the local Turning Point USA chapter. That means the group must pay the school to rent a room to meet.

The school has said Turning Point USA is a partisan group and thus not allowed for official status. But Mendoza and others note the IRS designates Turning Point as a nonprofit, meaning it cannot be partisan.