Rockwood School District Board of Education member Jessica Clark, who was the subject of various controversies early in her term, will resign on May 17.
Mary LaPak, Rockwood chief communications officer, said Clark is resigning because she is moving out of district boundaries.
Clark was elected to the board in April 2022, and her seat is up for election in April 2025.
“It has been an honor to serve alongside the entire board, and I am grateful for the opportunity to grow and learn together as a team,” Clark said in her April 8 resignation letter.
In 2022, Clark was temporarily stripped of certain board duties following backlash from comments she made about students with disabilities during a Real Talk Radio Network town hall event. She reportedly said, “I use the word ‘libtard.’ They said I was an ableist … 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.”
Board members voted to remove Clark from serving on the district’s wellness committee and from representing the district on the Missouri School Board Association.
Before Clark was elected to the board seat, she was known online as Jessica Laurent, and in now-deleted social media posts, she promoted classes for “sugaring,” which is slang for finding a relationship that has one member profiting from the other.
She said she used the term “sugaring” as a marketing ploy to get women to sign up for her class, which was really designed to empower women. She addressed the controversy on her campaign’s Facebook page before the 2022 election.
“Once my supporters saw the content, what was in the content, they were like, ‘Oh, this information is actually empowering and great. It is what you said it was,’” she said. “There’s always going to be controversy, and I embraced it authentically. I was always open and transparent about it.”
In Clark’s resignation letter, she thanked the board for its support and guidance.
“I have truly enjoyed working with each member of the board, and I am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved together,” she said.
LaPak said the remaining six board members will discuss a timeline for filling the vacant seat during the next scheduled meeting, which will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, at the Administrative Annex, 500 North Central Ave., in Eureka.
The person appointed to Clark’s vacate seat will fill it until the April 2025 election, LaPak said.