Although Rockwood School Board candidate Jessica Clark may share common goals with the Concerned Parents of Rockwood School District, she isn’t a member of the group.
“I've never really been a member of any of those online groups,” she said. “I try to stay out of those groups. If you agree with anything they say, they might lump you into those groups, but I am independently concerned.”
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Rockwood School District became a center of controversy involving the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools nationwide. Time Magazine even featured Rockwood School District’s director of student services Terry Harris in a July 21, 2021, article titled, ‘Critical Race Theory Is Simply the Latest Bogeyman: Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America's History.’ Time Magazine reported that Harris had been labeled as “the most racist guy towards white people you’ll ever meet.”
Clark said she wants to help the school district get past the turmoil that resulted in the resignation of Rockwood Superintendent Mark Miles and threats allegedly being lodged at parents and district staff, according to media reports.
“I'm running because we need to get back on track with academics and we need to move away from being overly fascinated with race,” Clark told the St. Louis Record. “We need to just get back to academics. I want to be a bridge between the parents, the school district, and the teachers. Right now, it seems like it's parents against teachers or the district against parents. I don't want that.”
The election is April 5 and like members of the Concerned Parents of Rockwood School District, Clark doesn’t want CRT taught to her children.
“As the mom of a blended interracial family, Critical Race Theory puts me in a very interesting situation because if I'm sending my girls to school and the school is painting a picture that my white daughters are oppressors and my black daughters are oppressed, how do I have these conversations? How do I combat that? How do I prepare them to go into a situation where they are on opposite ends of the spectrum?”
If elected, Clark believes that her banking background will be an asset to the school board.
She worked as an operations analyst in the global wealth and investment management department of Bank of America.
"We all were afraid and confused with the pandemic and I just don't think that as adults, we handled ourselves in a way that was conducive for the kids to know how to deal with it," Clark added. "We've had some suicides in the district. Our kids seem to be anxious and stressed out so we have to bring some kind of harmony back so that they can be able to thrive and learn. I plan to be part of that solution of bringing harmony back to our district."