After a newly-elected conservative Rockwood School Board member voted against gender-affirming workshops for K-12 teachers, she was accused of mocking students with disabilities and labeling liberals as ‘libtards.’
“They think that they can redefine words to fit their narrative,” said Jessica Laurent Clark. “The play on language. That's what’s so dangerous. I did not mock any students or mock anybody with disabilities. I used a word they do not like, which has nothing to do with intellectual disabilities.”
As previously reported, Clark ran a grassroots campaign as an independent and was elected to the Rockwood School Board in April.
In one instance while attending an Aug. 23 town hall meeting hosted by the Real Talk Radio Network, Clark used the word libtard, according to media reports, and in another instance, Clark was speaking at a soiree.
“They come in with the kids in the wheelchairs and everything ... whatever, you are a ‘libtard’ and I mean it and I stand on it,” Clark said.
The term is a combination of the words retard and liberal.
“It wasn't a school event,” Clark said. “It was the one-year anniversary of the radio station of my radio show. They tried to say that I was speaking about the school and that wasn't the case. It was me telling the story of all the attacks that I've been under for the last few months.”
The controversy emerged after Clark was the only board member who voted against renewing a $23,100 contract for Jess Jones Education and Consulting. Jones provides gender-affirming best practice workshops for the district’s K-12 teachers, according to a Rockwood School District document obtained by the St. Louis Record.
Jones will be paid $400 an hour for 42 hours of training, and $150 an hour for 42 hours of service planning and design. Her contract is monitored by Dr. Aisha Grace, the district's director of Education Equity and Diversity, who was recently arrested and charged with a DWI, according to the Marc Cox Show where Clark was a guest on Sept. 6.
“She teaches how to best deal with the transgender community and how to affirm their genders,” Clark told the St. Louis Record. “There is a big part of our community that does not want that in the district. So, I voted no on the contract.”
As for mocking kids in wheelchairs, Clark said she was referencing a detractor who attends campaign events with her children.
“Everything I say, she has a problem with, and this was not the first time I've spoken about her,” Clark added. “I was telling the story of how, when they initially labeled me a few months ago, they brought their kids into the school board meeting in their wheelchairs to solidify their idea that I am harmful to their children. My comment was taken out of context.”
The St. Louis Post Dispatch also reported that Clark promoted a "sugar baby" lifestyle in the past. Clark, however, argues, that it was merely part of a catchy brand name called The Sugar Life.
"It was an empowerment brand for young women, especially for black women, to help them attract people who are in a different income bracket and build better relationships," she said. "I talked a lot about single motherhood, toxic relationships, and generational trauma. I explained that during my campaign."