A candidate for the Parkway School District’s Board of Education has apparently been posting controversial content on her Twitter account, including calling for a ban on Islam in America and referring to Michelle Obama as a “giant rat.”
On the Board of Education’s website, Jeanie Ames describes herself as a candidate running to support the families of children with special needs, based on her experiences in non-profit work and with her own three children. According to her bio, she previously taught at Marion Elementary School in the Ritenour School District and was PTO president at Parkway Central Middle School.
Her candidacy, however, seems to have a different purpose. Screenshots posted on the image-sharing website Imgur of a Twitter account apparently run by Ames, ATeamMom1, show a variety of offensive comments targeting myriad groups.
On October 12, Ames retweeted a quote from actor James Woods: “The world is fighting Islamic terrorism, starvation and disease, but Democrats are fighting for men to pee in the ladies’ room.” She added, “Pretty much sums up my BoE run.” She also objects to the idea of closing the achievement gap in education, writing, “That’s code for the education equivalent of income/economic inequality.”
In one tweet referencing immigration policy, Ames writes, “Dreamers is just Anchor Kid misspelled.” In another, she quotes a Washington Post tweet about the discovery of a new species of giant rat to add “Wait, they just discovered @MichelleObama? That explains so much.” An image of a medieval crusader Ames retweeted bears the text “To Be Exposed To Evil is To Be Exposed To Islam! Let the Crusade Begin! Ban Islam In America!”
In other tweets, she describes Puerto Rico as “one trailer-lot payment away from being homeless,” lists the Congressional Black Caucus as among her problems with America, and expresses her support for former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, an accused pedophile.
On January 11, she posted a screenshot on a request for a vanity license plate with the letters “SHTHLR,” apparently a reference to president Donald Trump’s comment describing Haiti and African countries as “shitholes.” Ames has even posted a photograph of herself with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump advisor with extreme views of Islam and immigration and possible ties to Nazi organizations.
Ames’ account on Twitter is now locked, but in her bio on the site, she describes herself as a “ConstitutionalOriginalist,” a “Catholic” and a “Confederate.” Behind a profile photograph of a couple that closely resembles other photographs of Ames posing with her husband, Eric Ames, is a woman firing an assault rifle.
Ames’ candidacy has garnered negative attention from Parkway residents on social media. Erik Altman, a parent of two students in Parkway schools, said Ames’ tweets contradict the inclusivity he’s seen in the district.
“It is extremely troubling, to say the least,” Altman said. “When you hold views like Ms. Ames holds, there are going to be children who get left behind and get left out.”
This is not the first time controversial conservative ideology has been an issue in the Parkway School District. The district has been targeted by Missouri MassResistance, an anti-LGBT group listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, over an update to its sex education curriculum in 2017. The group’s small social media following overlaps significantly with Ames’.
Ames could not immediately be reached for comment. Parkway’s communications coordinator, Cathy Kelly, declined to comment and said the district does not offer any negative or positive statements on candidates for the board.
The views expressed in tweets from the account are consistent with a what a Trump supporter – identified as Jeanie Ames and resembling the woman in her Twitter profile photo – told the Belleville News Democrat in a video interview before the Trump-Clinton debate at Washington University last year. Ames said she is a “guns and money voter” who wants to “close the border” of the United States – presumably, the southern border that preoccupies Trump – and favors policies that lead to “less globalization.”
The Parkway Board of Education’s election will be held on Tuesday, April 3, with five candidates running for two open seats. Ames’ opponents are Kevin Seltzer, Jonathan Taylor, Matthew Schindler and Amy Bonnett.
Screenshots of Ames’ tweets can be found at https://imgur.com/a/SbdO0. The video interview is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CahObasCyAY.
