Morgan Brown

I was recently made aware that someone running for a position on the Rockwood School Board, Tamarah Wagner, has a history of posting racist, offensive, and hateful remarks on her social media. She has since deleted all of her social media accounts, but concerned onlookers in the past have screenshotted some of her posts and shared them with me. She berated people on Twitter, calling one person “a disgusting human being” for advocating for an anti-racist world. She attacked one of the members of the US Women’s Soccer Team when she spoke up about equality and LGBT rights, calling her “an embarrassment to society,” among other insults. 

Eureka High School- and the Rockwood District as a whole- is in a very delicate and complicated situation regarding diversity and inclusion. Many students, including myself, have felt under-represented, pushed aside, ignored, and minimized by school and district administrators in the past, and now we have a woman running for a position of leadership on the Board that would most likely attempt to stall and block any attempts made to move forward and create a more progressive and inclusive environment on Eureka’s campus and across the Rockwood District. 

I believe the parents and students of Rockwood deserve to know the truth behind the people running for positions of power, and they deserve to have a platform to voice their concerns and express their preferences. In my opinion, the last thing we need at Eureka is someone willing to disgrace and shame LGBT+ people, sympathize with a racist domestic terrorist group, and deface and insult innocent victims of police brutality like Breonna Taylor. That behavior is unacceptable on so many levels and is in no way an example we should be setting for students to follow. We cannot allow someone with such close-minded, ignorant, hateful views to hold any power in a space that is supposed to provide students with a safe and enjoyable space to learn, grow, and find our voices. I urge students to consult their parents about who they will be voting for in the upcoming election on April 6th and look into the backgrounds and values of the current nominees. We have the power to shape our own future and change the course of this school’s history, so long as we speak up and make our voices heard. 

Tamarah Wagner

I, Tamarah Wagner, candidate for Rockwood Board of Education, want to clear up a misrepresentation of my positions by the Eureka High School Bugle.  As is customary, each of Rockwood’s high school newspapers submitted questions to me shortly after I announced my candidacy.  All the high school papers, with the exception of the Bugle, published the questions and answers as stated.  The Bugle took the liberty to selectively edit my responses to misrepresent my answers. In the February article regarding the candidates for Rockwood School Board you stated that my main concern is that the current curriculum of Rockwood is “sensationalized propaganda and unverified information”; this statement is false. The writer asked me the biggest challenges facing the Rockwood community, not what my personal concerns were. If you equate biggest challenge to my concerns, my answer stated “the digital, media driven world presents unique challenges to parents and educators. The discernment of facts has become extremely challenging and we must get back to teaching and learning time-tested mathematics, historically verified information, spelling and ethics. We must resist teaching sensationalized propaganda and unverified information”. My point is that digital media is pushing the propaganda not the curriculum. I asked that the editor revise the article because I did not want to be misrepresented to the Rockwood community but you refused.  Finally, I want to make my view on racism crystal clear.  I denounce racism in the strongest way possible.  It has no place in our schools or society.  It is not racist to disbelieve someone who’s telling lies.