A Missouri woman who pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is running for school board in her hometown of St. Joseph.
Kimberly Dragoo and her husband, Steven Dragoo, posted on social media photos of their 2021 journey to Washington and activities in the Capitol. Their sentencing is scheduled for April 19.
Dragoo is one of 10 candidates for three open seats on the seven-member board. If elected, she would serve a three-year term.
Dragoo’s candidacy has ignited fierce debate in the community, especially on Facebook pages dedicated to St. Joseph politics.
Her detractors accuse her of encouraging harassment of her political opponents and publishing their private information on social media.
A February post on a Facebook page called “Students Against Kim Dragoo” drew nearly 1,000 comments.
“Dragoo was charged with four misdemeanors last June. Is this really the type of person we want on our School Board?” the page's creators wrote. “Is this the kind of leader the students of St. Joseph should look up to?”
In another post, the page's organizers wrote they wanted to remain anonymous due to concerns about privacy and safety. They did not respond to requests for comment.
Another Facebook group called “Parents Against Kim Dragoo” attracts almost daily posts and comments, and other Facebook users have created fake profiles that mock Dragoo.
The April 2 election, meanwhile, is taking place against a backdrop of contentious political debate in conservative-leaning St. Joseph, a city of about 70,000 people an hour north of Kansas City.
Last year, debate surrounding a gay pastor's reappointment to the public library board drew protests from conservative evangelical Christians and liberal activists alike.
And school board member Whitney Lanning was recently charged with second-degree harassment against another member, Isaura Garcia.
The school district is currently considering a controversial plan to consolidate its high schools. According to data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, about a quarter of St. Joseph students miss school at least 10% of the time. In 2023, the district’s scores on the Missouri Assessment Program, a state-administered standardized test, were below the state averages in math, science, English and social studies.
On April 2, St. Joseph voters will also decide on a $20 million property tax levy to fund school improvements like sidewalks, roads, intercoms, and heating and air conditioning. Dragoo told KCUR she supports spending money on bringing up students’ academic performance, not on building and improving facilities.
'I wouldn't say we harass'
Dragoo, who identifies as a conservative, said she first became involved in local politics when the St. Joseph School District started considering plans to close one of its three high schools.
She formed a Facebook group in 2019 called “We the people 3 schools,” which now has nearly 3,000 members. She described it as a place where she regularly posts information about powerful “elites” in St. Joseph.
“I wouldn’t say we harass,” she said. “I say we expose.”
Dragoo and other Facebook users have posted screenshots of public records that include addresses of current school board candidates. She told KCUR the posts were intended to expose information about tax delinquency and court cases, rather than share the addresses of her opponents.
Stacie Sanders, campaign treasurer for another school board candidate, Sean Connors, said the online behavior of Dragoo and her supporters has made people afraid to criticize Dragoo.
In one instance, a user published a comment on one of Dragoo’s Facebook posts that included a screenshot of a campaign record that included Sanders’ and Connors’ addresses. In another instance, Dragoo reposted photos that Sanders had taken several years ago of children’s dance performances.
Now, Sanders said she’s afraid for the safety of her family.
“It’s not getting along with other people and actually working for a better cause, it’s: ‘I’m going to attack everyone around me that disagrees with me and make their lives miserable,’” Sanders said. “I quit speaking out publicly.”
Connors, the former head of St. Joseph’s Human Rights Commission, thinks the city already has a reputation in liberal circles for being regressive and unwelcoming. He’s concerned Dragoo’s candidacy for the school board will reflect even more negatively.
“I think that’s the optics that would happen if she got elected,” he said. “It would just be like, ‘St. Joe is out of their minds.’”
Dragoo’s conservative campaign for the school board
Dragoo declined to discuss with KCUR the events of Jan. 6, but agreed she could be described as a controversial figure in the community.
“I think everybody on both sides of the aisle knows me,” she said. “They know I tell the truth and they know the kind of person I am.”
Dragoo said she did not graduate from high school. In a recent school board candidate forum at Grace Calvary Chapel in St. Joseph, she said her educational background made it easier for her to understand students who are struggling in school.
“I don’t see how someone with a doctorate degree could ever understand a child that has not finished school,” Dragoo said. “We need to go back to basics and just figure out what is happening, why are they not graduating.”
Like most candidates at the forum, Dragoo said she would not support a transgender student using a bathroom that matches their gender identity, as opposed to their assigned gender at birth.
She also said critical race theory, an academic and legal approach that examines how race and racism function in American institutions, should not be taught in public schools. The approach has become a catch-all political buzzword for any teaching in schools about race and American history, and a rallying cry for some conservatives who take issue with how schools have addressed diversity and inclusion. The theory itself is not a fixture of K-12 education.
“We’re not racist anymore. Whatever happened back then was before our time,” she said. “None of us experienced anything like that. We shouldn’t be held accountable or made to feel guilty, or like it has anything to do with us.”
'It does all of us a disservice'
Although recent political discourse in St. Joseph has been particularly toxic, some community leaders said the atmosphere isn’t new.
St. Joseph School Board President LaTonya Williams, who is Black and a woman, said she has been a frequent target of criticism since she was elected to the school board, possibly due to her race and gender.
Dragoo has published Facebook posts that accuse Williams of tax delinquency, and that contain screenshots of public records that include Williams’ address. Dragoo has also posted court records claiming Williams was evicted from previous homes.
Williams told KCUR her unpaid taxes amounted to $22.70 in administrative fees. She also said she has never been evicted, and that the court records are for other people with the same name.
Williams said the social media attacks against her have been taxing on her mental health.
“Imagine getting online every day and you don’t know what’s going to pop up, and your children are also going to read those,” Williams said.
Williams, who is running for reelection to the school board, also runs the Bartlett Center, a nonprofit that provides child care and other community services.
“I’m not even able to defend myself, because if I do, I’m considered unprofessional,” she said.
Williams said people on social media have also criticized her small businesses, and have implied that her decision to purchase multicolored decorations for her nonprofit was an attempt to indoctrinate children into an LGBTQ+ lifestyle.
“As you become a leader, people like to pick apart every aspect of your life. I’m not the kind of individual that that group could ever support,” Williams said, referring to the Facebook group that Dragoo started.
Williams noted this election could be a consequential one for St. Joseph. The three school board seats up for reelection this cycle could swing a decision on the district’s long-range plan.
Williams said that's why she works regularly with people across the political spectrum, and sees herself as a candidate who’s not as liberal as others make her out to be.
She also thinks St. Joseph is not as politically divided as it appears to outsiders, despite the debate around Dragoo’s candidacy.
“If you actually have a look at people in the community and you listen to them,” she said, “a majority of the time, all of us are way more alike than we are different.”
Williams said people are still willing to work together even though online discourse is toxic.
“There’s a lot of individuals who work a lot of hours in order to improve our town,” she said. “It does all of us a disservice when people mention our town and they only want to talk about an insurrection.”
