But they really
notice if you help get someone defeated – especially when it’s a prominent official!
After nearly three years of bitter confrontation
between a rabid pro-sex-ed School Board and outraged parents (led by our MassResistance Missouri chapter), Board Chairman Chris Jacob of the Parkway School District in suburban St. Louis suffered a shocking defeat in his bid for re-election last month.
In the April 4 election, there were eleven candidates running for three
School Board seats. Jacob came in sixth
with only 8.97% of the vote, and lost his seat
on the Board. It was a huge defeat. In the 2014 election, Jacob had come in first
with 23.7%, In 2011 he also came in first with 26.2%.
The issue: A hardcore “comprehensive sexuality” curriculum
Back in 2014, the Parkway School District staff began compiling a “comprehensive sexuality” curriculum for the entire K-12 student body. It immediately raised red flags among parents. Portions of it were announced that seemed very graphic and explicit, and were linked to radical sexuality and LGBT and abortion groups. However, the school officials were very hostile and uncooperative with the concerned parents who wanted more information about it.
In particular, it became clear that the curriculum included fairly extensive abortion counseling for young girls. It is against Missouri law to include anything related to abortion in a school curriculum. The officials didn’t seem to care. This really riled parents.
After being stonewalled by school staff, parents began to question the Parkway School Board about the very disturbing things they were seeing in the curriculum. But they still did not get any answers.
The parents were not subtle in their outrage. But the officials continued to ignore them..
School Board votes to implement entire curriculum – and refuses to re-considerThen on March 9, 2016, Parkway School Board shocked parents by voting to implement it in its entirely. Parents were outraged. Board Chairman Chris Jacob had originally opposed it, but soon after the vote he completely changed sides. He suddenly strongly supported it and became hostile to those who disagreed with it.
But the parents refused to give up. A growing group of MassResistance-Missouri parents continued to come to the School Board meetings and bring up all of the troubling issues. The parents demanded a re-vote on the curriculum.
But Chris Jacob and the other Board members refused to even meet with them to discuss it. Keeping up the pressure. Parents at Aug. 3 School Board meeting were demanding the resignation of Dr. Keith Marty, the Superintendent and the force behind the comprehensive sexuality program, unless the Board agreed to re-vote on it.
However, by August, there were rumors that the Board might consider a re-vote. On Aug. 24, 2016, local LGBT activists came to the School Board meeting, clearly angry that a re-vote might happen.
At the beginning of that meeting Chairman Chris Jacob placated them bu publicly announcing that the original vote would stand and the Board was not considering taking a re-vote on the comprehensive sexuality program. That was followed by a long period of loud clapping by the LGBT group. Since then, Jacob and the Board have refused to budge an inch.
Adult LGBT activists came to the School Board meeting on Aug. 24 to intimidate the Board members into keeping the comprehensive sexuality curriculum in place — and no re-voting. And the Board appeased them.
Then came the School Board elections …
The April 4, 2017, Parkway School Board election was a very heated contest. There were 11 candidates, including two incumbents, running for the three seats up for election.
The liberal establishment, teachers’ union, and sex-ed/LGBT/abortion lobbies all wanted to solidify their control of the school system. The sex-ed/LGBT/abortion lobby formed called “Parents Moving Parkway Forward.” They endorsed three candidates, raised money, and organized to get them elected. The teachers’ union also endorsed three candidates, including Jacob and the other incumbent. They did not want the pro-family people to gain anything. But that’s not quite how things turned out!
The sex-ed/LGBT/abortion lobby mailed this out, supporting their slate of candidates.
The pro-family parents took a different approach
But our side took a different approach. A parents group called Missouri Advocates for Education Transparency and Accountability
(AETA), put together a simple but powerful “report card” on the school committee candidates. Some candidates got all A’s. School Board Chairman Chris Jacob got a straight F rating. AETA did a mass mailing in the district.
MassResistance-Missouri emailed the report card to their vast network of conservatives,
went door-to-door
in the district with it, and stood at polling places with it on election day.
ABOVE: Grading the School Committee candidates, including incumbents.
RIGHT: The report card also described the problems in the school system.
The report card really resonated with voters! There was a lot of buzz about it throughout the district. It was clear and easy to understand. As one local parent said, “Without MassResistance-Missouri being a beacon of truth telling, parents in the district would not have been alerted to this.”
And here’s what happened
The April 4 election had the highest voter turnout in many years. When the smoke cleared, two of the three teachers’ union candidates (including Jacob) were defeated. (The union-endorsed candidate who got elected was an incumbent who got a C.) Two of the three “Progress” candidates were defeated. More good news: The main candidate that the conservative parents were supporting (who got an A) was elected!
And most important, the entire Board knows that if a former top vote-getter can go down in defeat over a parents-rights issue, any of them could be next!
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