ST. LOUIS _ A Parkway School Board candidate who has identified herself as a Confederate, called Michelle Obama a "giant rat" on Twitter and retweeted a message about banning Islam in the United States argued at a candidate forum Sunday night that she is not anti-Islam or racist.
"I am not a xenophobic, homophobic, anti-Islam, anti-Semitic racist," Jeanie Ames said in her opening statement at the forum, which was held at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis in Ballwin.
She claimed that people have waged a "vile smear campaign" against her. She said she thinks she faces opposition because she wants to be a pro-life, conservative voice on the school board, "which scares the board because it challenges their status quo."
In response to a question that asked candidates for their views on Islamophobia, Ames claimed that her "anti-Islam" retweet was taken out of context. She said it was part of a debate about how President Donald Trump's proposed travel ban on certain majority-Muslim countries was related to immigration laws passed in 1924 and 1952.
"In no way was it a reflection of any Islamophobia at all," Ames said.
But Faizan Syed, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Missouri, found her argument confusing and unconvincing. After Sunday's forum concluded, he asked her to apologize for her retweet, but she refused. Syed said he doesn't see how her retweet, which read, "Ban Islam in America!" and included an image of a knight kneeling with a sword, could not be Islamophobic.
Ames' statements also failed to convince about 30 protesters, including students from Parkway and other schools, who stood across the street from the mosque holding posters with messages such as "Jeanie Ames = white supremacy" and passing out flyers urging residents not to vote for Ames.
"It's very easy to backpedal once you've made some comments that could cost you the election," said Anna Reynolds, a 2015 Parkway Central High graduate and Parkway voter who protested Sunday.
Ames, a graduate of Parkway, declined to speak with a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter after the forum.
Five Parkway parents are running for two open spots with three-year terms on the Parkway school board: Matthew Schindler, Jonathan Taylor, Kevin Seltzer, Amy Bonnett and Ames. Bonnett could not make it to Sunday's forum.
School board elections are frequently low-turnout affairs. But Parkway's board election, which will be held April 3, has attracted more attention than usual since news of Ames' social media history began to circulate in January. Ames, who previously taught in the Ritenour School District, made her Twitter account private shortly after that.
Sunday's forum was organized by the Islamic Foundation and Muslims for a Better America, a nonprofit formed this year to engage St. Louis-area Muslims in local politics.
Typically only the League of Women Voters of St. Louis organizes candidate forums for school board elections. One such forum was held two weeks ago at Parkway Central Middle, where more than 200 people packed the room. But the forum's organizers excluded specific questions related to Ames' tweets, instead opting for a general question related to student rights.
Saad Amir, executive director of Muslims for a Better America, said he thought many significant topics had been left out of that forum and he hoped Sunday's forum would fill in those holes. Candidates were given two minutes each to respond to questions posed by audience members and by the two host organizations.
On Sunday, Ames was the candidate most critical of current Parkway board leadership and administration, accusing them of frivolous spending, not listening to parents and not supporting students with special needs. Taylor also said he thought current Parkway leadership does not listen enough to parents when making decisions.
Schindler and Seltzer praised current Parkway leaders and said they were happy with the direction Parkway is heading on issues such as diversity, social justice and green initiatives.
Here's what the candidates had to say about other questions asked by the audience:
_On banning out-of-school suspensions for students in kindergarten through third grade: Seltzer and Schindler said they agree with this ban, saying resources should be provided instead to keep students in school. Taylor said he doesn't want to limit staff's ability to discipline as needed, but he doesn't see why young students should be suspended out of school. Ames said she wants to keep out-of-school suspensions for young children, saying certain students need to be removed from the classroom so that other students can learn.
_On school safety: Schindler, Ames and Taylor said they want to see school resource officers, police officers that are stationed in schools, throughout the district. Seltzer said he supports having school resource officers but does not want to add more, saying that risks schools looking like prisons.
_On school choice and school vouchers: Schindler and Seltzer said they oppose school vouchers. Ames said she would support some forms of school choice, such as tax credits and vouchers, when they do not take money away from public schools. Taylor said Parkway needs to be competitive enough to keep students in Parkway if they get more opportunities to attend other schools.
