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BALLWIN A substitute teacher in the Parkway School District and candidate for state Legislature said on Saturday that he did not regret tearing up Pride and Black Lives Matter fliers that he pulled off a classroom wall.

Jason Jennings, who is running in the Republican primary for a House seat, said that he has taken similar decorations down in the past, without consequence, and emphasized that no students were present at the time.

Its common sense that items signifying Pride or trans or BLM, that stuff should not be put in front of children, said Jennings, 42.

Jennings, of Ballwin, was subbing in a journalism classroom on April 5 at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield. Before the school day started, he noticed a Black Lives Matter sign on one side of a picture of the American flag and a sign that said All are welcome in rainbow letters on the other.

He pulled a stool over, took the signs off the wall and tore them up. He snapped a photo and then put the pieces in his bag. No one in his classes mentioned that the signs were missing or saw the scraps, Jennings said.

On Monday, Jennings posted the photo on the social platform X, formerly Twitter, with a caption that said in part: This is what needs to happen when teachers insist on grooming kids with Pride signage and promoting hate groups such as BLM!

The post did not mention where the fliers came from. Jennings has about 450 followers on X.

By Friday, Jennings was back at Parkway Central, substituting in a Spanish class. During the second period, principal Tim McCarthy came into the room and asked Jennings to step outside. McCarthy showed Jennings the post and asked if it was his. Jennings said it was, and McCarthy asked him to leave campus.

Friday evening, McCarthy sent a letter to Parkway Central families informing them of what happened.

The safety and well being of our students and staff are always our highest priority, the letter read. McCarthy expressed gratitude to the students and teacher who reported concerns to administrators and said that Kelly Education, which employs the substitutes used by Parkway, was investigating.

Jennings said he has been removed from the Parkway substitute list and will be talking to Kelly Services on Monday. He has been a sub since 2022, only at the high school level and only with Parkway.

I have no regrets about what I did, said Jennings. A lot of people have been very supportive, and a lot of people are mad about it.

Jennings has never held office. He will face Republican incumbent Philip Oehlerking and fellow challenger Brant Harbor in August.

View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.

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Parkway sub tore down Pride and Black Lives Matter signs. He has no regrets. - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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