
Connie Bernard was a Republican member of the East Baton Rouge school board from District 8 from 2010. A two-time LSU graduate, entrepreneur, and substitute teacher, she was elected to the school board with 54.1% of the vote in 2010, and she was re-elected with 51.6% of the vote in 2014. She first drew criticism on 10 August 2018 after being videoed having a profanity-filled confrontation with several young people having a party down the street from her home. On 21 June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, she again drew controversy after she was caught shopping for dresses on her laptop as local activist Gary Chambers criticized her for refusing to rename Lee High School; Bernard had previously said that those offended by the name should "learn a little bit more about" Robert E. Lee and discover that he eventually freed all his slaves. Chambers showed her a photo which he had taken of her computer screen and demanded that she should walk out, resign, and never come back, calling her "the example of racism in this community" and "horrible".