Missouri school board now controlled by conservatives revokes anti-racism resolution

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O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) In the national toll following the police killing of George Floyd three years ago, about 2,000 protesters took to the streets of a St. Louis suburb and urged the mostly white Francis Howell School District to fight racial discrimination. The school board responded with a resolution promising to do better.

Now the board, led by new Conservative board members elected since last year, has revoked that anti-racism resolution and copies of it will be removed from school buildings.

The resolution passed in August 2020 promises our learning community that we will speak out strongly against all racism, discrimination and senseless violence against people, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or ability.

We will promote racial healing, especially for our black and brown students and families, the resolution states. We will no longer be silent.

The council’s decision follows a trend that began with backlash against COVID-19 pandemic policies in places across the country. School board elections have become intense political battlegrounds, with political action groups successfully electing candidates promising to take action against teachings about race and sexuality, remove books deemed offensive, and shut down transgender-inclusive sports teams.

The Francis Howell District is one of the largest in Missouri, with 17,000 students, about 87% of whom are white. The vote, which took place at an often contentious meeting on Thursday, overturned the resolutions 75 days after “a majority of current members of the Board of Education were not signatories to the resolution or otherwise voted to pass the resolution.

While a few others will also be cancelled, the anti-racism resolution was clearly front and center. Dozens of people opposed to his removal packed the board meeting, many holding signs reading, Forward, Not Back.

Kimberly Thompson, who is black, attended Francis Howell Schools in the 1970s and 1980s, and her two children graduated from the district. She described several instances of racism and urged the board to meet its 2020 pledge.

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This resolution means hope to me, hope for a better Francis Howell School District, Thompson said. This means setting behavioral expectations for students and staff, regardless of their personal views.

Board vice-chairman Randy Cook said phrases in the resolution such as systemic racism are undefined and mean different things to different people. Another council member, Jane Puszkar, said the resolution served no purpose.

What did it really do, ”she asked. How effective was it?

Since the adoption of the resolution, the composition of the Board of Directors has changed. Only two members remain on the 2020 board. Five new members elected in April 2022 and April 2023 had the support of the conservative Francis Howell Families Political Action Committee.

In 2021, PAC described the anti-racism resolution as woke activism and drafted an alternative resolution to oppose “all acts of racial discrimination, including the act of promoting racially divisive principles of critical race theory, white privilege labels, enforced equity of outcomes, identity politics, intersectionalism, and Marxism.”

Cook, who was elected in 2022 and sponsored the recall, said there were no plans to adopt that alternative or any other.

In my opinion, the school board doesn’t need to divide the community, Cook said. We just have to stick to the education of students here and stay out of national politics.

Many districts are faced with debates on topics mislabeled as critical race theory. School administrators say scientific theory centered on the idea that racism is systemic in nations’ institutions is not taught in K-12 schools.

Others argue that school systems waste money, perpetuate divisions and shame white children by pursuing initiatives they see as critical race theory in disguise.

In 2021, the Ohio State Board of Education rescinded an anti-racism and equity resolution that also passed after Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. It was replaced with a statement promoting academic excellence without regard to “race, ethnicity, or creed”.

Racial issues remain particularly sensitive in the St. Louis area, nine years after a Ferguson, Missouri police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown during a street confrontation. Officer Darren Wilson was not charged and the shooting led to months of often violent protests, becoming a catalyst for the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement.

Revocation of Francis Howell’s resolution sets a precedent for what is to come, warned St. Charles County NAACP President Zebrina Looney.

I think that’s just the beginning of what this new council is supposed to do, Looney said.

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