A lot of my peers hated high school. And I don’t blame them. After experiencing college and the diverse, wide world that is out there for all of us, it’s easy to write off your high school experience as just a blip on the timeline that got you to where you belong.

But I can’t seem to write off mine. Perhaps that’s because I enjoyed high school. I had great teachers, a great school, and friends from a diverse set of experiences. I got to experience things that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, in large part because my high school, Liberty High School, paved the way for me to do so.

I don’t really believe in the term “melting pot” as it assumes a type of assimilation that I can’t behind, but Liberty was probably what you think of when visualizing that trite term. Our school was the only one in the predominantly white and wealthy district to be over 50 percent minority students and it shows. I knew it was Holi, not because the news told me, but because the Hindu students at school celebrated with an explosion of color after school. The amazing black students at our school had revitalized a step team whose performances were always my favorite part of the pep rallies. My memories of multicultural days in elementary school is dominated by the Asian and South Asian parents taking over the cafeteria with good food and music.

That’s not to say that we were without problems or racism. That’s a pipe dream if there ever was one. Oftentimes, our school was a place to celebrate for students of color, while white students ignored it completely or looked down upon it. The experiences of black and Latinx students were downplayed in favor of Asian and South Asian experiences. Our parents still complain when an apartment complex, which housed most of the lower income, minority, or untraditional families, got zoned to their school. What was viewed as good, popular, or wholesome was the white, Christian, sports-oriented sect of our high school, which I imagine is still true of many of the high schools in the country.

While this remains true, what also remains true about LHS is the fact that minority students have been the lifeblood of our school and its successes. Dozens of National Merit scholars, successful UIL competitors, exemplary sports teams—look at their pictures, those students of color.

But last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton came after some of those students, those students that make my former high school the pillar of success that it is.

In a press release, AG Paxton, who once sued a school principal to keep a bible verse on a door in a public school, decided he was going to meddle in the affairs of a handful of students in one room in one high school in Frisco, Texas, which apparently falls within Paxton’s supposed ideals of local control and small government. Someone should tell my former AP government teacher, because that’s definitely not how he described conservatism.

Paxton, in a letter to Frisco ISD’s superintendent, said he was concerned with the idea that  Muslim students at Liberty were allowed to use a room in the school for daily prayer. Yup, the man who has wielded the words “religious liberty” as a weapon against anyone who so much thought about silencing any facet of Christianity in schools or the public sphere, is concerned about a handful of students who pray at school.

Even beyond the blatant hypocrisy that Paxton has clearly exhibited time and time again, Paxton’s press release raised concerns that the Muslim students were “excluding” students of other religions. As the devoted and balanced public official that we know him to be (please note sarcasm), he must be concerned for students of other faith who are supposedly discriminated against at LHS, right? As he is a Christian, let’s look at how his religion has been treated at LHS.

As a practicing Catholic and Christian, I know firsthand what it was like as a Christian at LHS. In addition to knowing that most of my teachers and fellow students were raised within the same structure I was in and getting weeks and “weather days” off that conveniently corresponded with my religious holidays, I had the opportunity to participate in a number of clubs that emphasized my religion if I chose to do so. If memory serves, the day I walked into LHS, I had the choice between SPOT, I am Second, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, or even create my own Christianity-oriented organization. I know firsthand how easy it is to create one, as my signature can be found on the document that signed one into existence, LHS Bible Study, which was led by my friend Jay and gave Christian students a weekly opportunity to gather and celebrate their faith.

Difficult, right?

But let’s face it, Attorney General Paxton cares about none of this. So let’s stop pretending like he didn’t research it enough or was ignorant of the actual situation. His history of defending Christianity while vilifying anything else, all in the name of religious liberty, has shown us that he doesn’t care about religious freedom, but religious dominance of one religion in particular—his own.

Muslim students at Liberty were guided by the fact that the regular school day did not allow for their daily prayer—a tenet of their faith that my Muslim peers and friends who created the prayer room idea considered very important to their identity and religion. Instead of protecting this right as his job mandates him to do, Paxton decided to schedule time into his day to attack the religious freedom of a handful of teenagers.

To the Muslim students at Liberty, don’t let this man shake you. As a former LHS student, I am proud that my school houses you and you deserve to have the school experience that is inclusive to your religion and way of life. I can’t blame you for being scared now that your practices and daily life has been called into question and is being attacked. But just know that people around you are supporting you and are ready to defend you. Bullies don’t just exist in high school, they exist everywhere. Like all those school seminars and anti-bullying campaigns taught us kids, I’m not going to be a bystander. I’m with you.

I refuse to let Paxton’s hypocritical views and blatant discrimination become the narrative of this state. The Muslim students at every public institution need to feel safe and loved. The teachers and faculty at LHS are fulfilling their duty by creating an inclusive space for Muslim students and Paxton needs to let them do that, rather than using defenseless high school students for his own political agenda of Christianity First. Defending a Bible verse on public display in a school and then raising concerns about a group of students privately praying in a room during an off period—neither of these are conducive to your precious religious freedom.

After all, Paxton and his Deputy Attorney General said it best in their own press release, “It appears that students are being treated different based on their religious beliefs. Such a practice, of course, is irreconcilable with our nation’s enduring commitment to religious liberty…’One religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.'”

Take your own advice, Mr. Paxton.