ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Jessica Clark, the Rockwood School Board member who flared tempers in 2022 with comments mocking students with disabilities and scorning "transgender crap" in schools, will resign this May.
Rockwood Chief Communications Officer Mary LaPak confirmed Clark's resignation will take effect May 17, a year before her term on the board was set to expire.
LaPak said Clark is leaving the board because she is moving out of the school district.
Clark was voted in to the school board in the spring of 2022. That August, a video circulated of her making inflammatory comments at a town hall meeting hosted by Real Talk Radio Network, a conservative talk radio network based in Missouri.
"They come to the school board meetings with their gay flags and their masks," Clark said. "I used the word 'libtard', they said I was an ableist. They come in with the kids in the wheelchairs and everything. You are a 'libtard' and I meant it and I stand on it."
Clark also added, "When we talk about this transgender crap, you’re not gonna do that to my kids. My kids don’t get to leave the house as girls and go to school and be validated as boys."
Editor's note: The above video was published on Aug. 26, 2022.
The comments angered many parents in the district, including one woman who believed the wheelchair comment was targeted at her daughter.
Parents packed a following school board meeting, many of them calling for Clark's resignation. Clark, at the time, said she would stay on the board to represent what she called "all" students and parents, even those whose opinions may differ from popular opinions.
The board ultimately voted to remove Clark from two of her duties – serving on the district's wellness committee and serving as a representative on the state level for the local board.
Clark could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday regarding her resignation.
According to the school board's policy, when a vacancy occurs on the board, the remaining members will select someone by majority vote to fill the position until the next annual school election.
