Former Missouri Governor and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has endorsed State Rep. Jane Cunningham’s bid for the state Senate. He will also appear at a fundraiser for the Republican candidate.

“I wholeheartedly endorse Jane Cunningham for the Missouri State Senate,” Ashcroft said in a written statement. “I have known Jane, and her husband Gary, for thirty years. I can vouch for her integrity, her energetic work ethic, and her commitment to advancing legislation that provides tax relief, economic vitality and a quality education for all children. She has served with distinction as a Missouri State Representative for eight years, Chair of the critical House Education Committee and in leadership positions nationally. Jane has my enthusiastic support. ”

“I’m obviously thrilled to have General Ashcroft’s endorsement,” Cunningham said. “His unparalleled reputation as a man of ability, principle, faith and fairness propelled him to an amazing career of public service for which Missourians and Americans are grateful and stand proud.”

Cunningham also announced that Ashcroft will be the honored guest and speaker at an event for her State Senate race to be held in St. Louis County on Monday, June 16th.

UPDATED @ 5:32 PM:  Part of the trouble with “She Said, She Said” beefs is that they can get pretty confusing pretty quickly. To clear things up, Jeanette Mott Oxford sent us an email making clear what she was — and was not — apologizing to Jane Cunningham for.

Antonio,

I hope it is clear that what I’m apologizing for is not meeting with Rep. Cunningham in advance and asking her to take the three steps in the press release I issued last week in that private session FIRST. I am taking no position on what really happened in her office. But I wish I had offered her a chance to say yes or no to those three steps before taking my case to the public.

Something about how the article from today is framed could lead one to believe I have accepted her side of the story. I still believe the students deserved a different response, a welcome. Even if she could not take time to meet with them that day, she could have invited them to write her with concerns. Being chair of that committee carries a responsibility to hear the witness of youths who have been bullied. And objections about how a young person’s fashion choices (if one chooses to voice them) could be stated in a manner that invites dialogue instead of language that shames that young person.

JMO

Jeanette Mott Oxford
State Representative, 59th District

Here’s our earlier story:

A Democratic legislator has apologized to one of her Republican colleagues after accusing her of disrespecting a group of teenagers attempting to lobby her support for an anti-bullying bill.

Last week, State Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford (D-St. Louis) put out a press release claiming State Rep. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) refused to meet with students Desiree Bain and Austyn Langston of Jackson County because “she found their appearance very difficult to look at.” [Read our earlier story.]

Oxford, who did meet with the students, said they had multiple facial piercings and one had vividly colored hair. “Other than that they looked like regular teenagers to me,” Oxford said.

According to a press release for Oxford’s office, after refusing to meet with Langston and Bain, Rep. Cunningham told another group of students that “looking at these two young women was making her ill and that she didn’t understand why they hated themselves.”

Apparently that’s not exactly what happened.

Shortly after making the accusations at a press conference, Oxford, now armed with Cunningham’s side of the story, sent her colleague the following apology:

From:Jeanette Oxford 

Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 1:39 PM
To: Jane Cunningham
Subject: my apologies
 
Rep. Cunningham,

I owe you an apology. Today I led a press conference calling for passage of the Safe Schools bill (HB 1751) and for you to meet with students who were asked to leave your office. I asked for you to hear their experiences of being bullied at school and to attend the Inclusion Institute for Educators this summer. It should have occurred to me to come to you first and to ask you personally to take those steps. No legislator wants to feel ambushed by her colleagues or the media, and I had not thought this out properly.

It is no excuse, but this is a case where my heart got ahead of my head. As a person who experienced school bullying as a child (bullying based on size, on other appearance characteristics, and on religion), as the best friend of a gay boy who was bullied unmercifully when we were high school students, and as an out lesbian who feels a responsibility to make schools safer now than they were when I was a teen, I simply did not think the process through as well as I should. I wanted to highlight the problem of school bullying - and I can assure you that almost all of the press conference time today WAS indeed focused on information and questions about school bullying, not about you - but still when Bob Watson asked me during the press conference why I didn’t just go to you, it hit me that I should have done that first.

I ask you to recognize that I persuaded Rep. Lampe and Sen. Justus to participate in the press conference today and that my invitation to them focused on the importance of our moving the issue of safe schools forward. If the pace of our week here had allowed it, we quite possibly would have sat and talked through many issues related to the press conference and spotted that an important step had not been taken. Rep. Lampe and Sen. Justus may have even assumed that step HAD been taken; I’m not sure. They left the background work to me and agreed to show up and make a brief statement today. I believe they agreed to attend due to their relationship with me. No malice toward you was intended by any of us. What we want to see is safe schools for all of Missouri’s children. I believe you share that aim as well, but that you have not yet come to recognize some of the realities connected to the dynamics of oppression.

You are welcome to share my apology with the media (thus the written apology) if that is your desire, and I’ll be glad to meet with you and PROMO, the students, the media or anyone else with whom you invite me to meet on this topic.

JMO
Jeanette Mott Oxford
State Representative, 59th District
573-751-4567 (Jefferson City)
314-772-0301 (St. Louis)

Cunningham’s office also released the following statement on the matter:

Because of the heavy legislative role and hectic pace of Jane’s office they have a standard operating procedure that when they have tight deadlines, they try hard to take a few minutes to visit with constituents.  Jane’s office always asks if visitors are constituents. The teens misrepresented themselves as living in Jane’s district and would not leave when asked.  

Even the teen’s chaperone inserted her foot in Jane’s door when Jane’s assistant repeatedly told her we had to prepare for a committee hearing. The assistant was shaken by the experience.    

[UPDATE: Read our later story “Oxford Apologizes to Cunningham” to get even more info about what happened.]

Did State Rep. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) really turn tail on two teens who came to Jefferson City to support anti-bullying legislation?

The office of Jeanette Mott Oxford (D-St. Louis) put out a press release Thursday claiming Cunningham refused to meet with students Desiree Bain and Austyn Langston of Jackson County because “she found their appearance very difficult to look at.”

Oxford, who did meet with the students, said they had multiple facial piercings and one had “vividly colored hair.”

“Other than that they looked like regular teenagers to me,” Oxford said.

The incident happened March 26. Langston and Bain were at the State Capitol in support of the Missouri Safe Schools legislation (House Bill 1751). The bill contains training provisions for teachers and school administrators to better recognize and stop school bullying. The bill also addresses harassment of homosexual and transgender students.

The bill is presently being held up by Rep. Cunningham who is the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee chairperson.

PubDef.net has tried to contact Cunningham’s office for her side in this incident, but so far all attempts have been unsuccessful.

According to a press release for Oxford’s office, after refusing to meet with Langston and Bain, Rep. Cunningham told another group of students that:

(L)ooking at these two young women was making her ill and that she didn’t understand why they hated themselves.

Oxford would later meet with those same students and recalled how upset they were.

We all have different polices about who can see us in our offices, but anytime students make it to the capitol I try to talk to students … I try to treat them with hospitality whether they are dressed ‘properly’ or not.

The students involved went to the office of Sara Lampe (D-Springfield). She wasn’t in so her assistant got me. The kids were quite upset and I wanted them to see an elected official who’s going to receive them warmly.

Oxford said Cunningham may tell the story one way, but others find it another. She thinks Cunningham should set aside her prejudices and work with her fellow representatives to fight bullying.

I am not in anyway impugning some kind of lack of compassion or ill motivation on Rep. Cunningham’s part. She and lots of other will meaning people don’t understand the dynamics of hateful speech.

The state passed a law saying ‘no bullying.’ That’s not good enough. Unless there’s some training for teachers and principals on when and how to spot bullying, schools are not doing a good job with it. I sat down with a student who’s since dropped out of school because of the bullying she was receiving.