Supporters protest JROTC staffer's leave at school

Jenna Wilson, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
·2 min read

May 9—Dozens of JROTC cadets protested outside of Lafayette High School on Thursday in support of Master Sgt. Jamaal Anderson, who was placed on administrative leave by the St. Joseph School District.

News-Press NOW has been following this story since last week. District officials have said they are avoiding commenting on the situation at this time.

Cadets and parents are continuing to use their voices in hopes that they will receive answers to what they are calling "injustice."

Supporters say they were told by district officials that the situation could be addressed at a closed school board meeting on April 29 and 30, but that never happened."Not once, but twice, these kiddos were promised a chance to have an open forum with our superintendent, Gabe Edgar, regarding this entire thing," said Raechelle Gastineau, a JROTC parent. "There was no open forum in the St. Joseph School District for parents, guardians or kids to come and express how they feel and it was promised."

Tiffany Leever, Anderson's spouse, said this entire situation has been difficult for him to get through and to her, it appears to be nothing short of discrimination.

"He has shown a lot of resilience because I've been watching what's been happening to him for the entirety of our relationship," she said. "It was very disheartening to go to the last board meeting and hear the superintendent talk about transparency and then not mention that they had canceled the meeting regarding Anderson."

Both cadets and parents are saying the situation was handled unprofessionally and claim district leaders called students into the office by themselves to discuss certain information regarding Anderson.

"It has all been handled wrong," said Mandy Worley, Lafayette JROTC parent. "The parents should have been present when they were calling the students into the offices."

Worley said her concern for students who protested Thursday is that they will face consequences after standing up for Anderson.

"Some of the students are scared that if they do come back to school tomorrow, they're going to face retaliation because some of them already have today," she added.

However, Lafayette JROTC cadets won't stop protesting with a purpose.

"They did this to themselves. If they don't want us to be loud and speak for ourselves, then address the situation and give us answers like we've been asking," said JROTC student Taylor Dutton.

Leever said Anderson has no intentions of returning to the Lafayette JROTC program after this controversy.

"Anderson has tried his best to bring attention to a lot of wrong things happening with the district, but they've shut him down and he's now moving on," she said. "But what he would want for everyone to do is raise awareness about the illegal things that are going on with the Lafayette administration and the way they're treating people."

Jenna Wilson can be reached at jenna.wilson@newspressnow.com.