Chalkboard Champion Jacobi Crowley, a crisis behavior specialist, runs for state senator in Oklahoma.
This year’s mid-term elections have seen a record number of talented and hardworking educators running for public office. One of these is Jacobi Crowley, a special education teacher and crisis behavior specialist from Oklahoma. The Chalkboard Champion is bidding for a seat in the Oklahoma State Senate.
Jacobi garnered the Democratic nomination for Oklahoma State Senate District 32 in his state’s primary elections last June. If the 26-year-old wins the general election in November, he will be the youngest state senator in Oklahoma history. His opponent is Republican state Representative John Montgomery. Jacobi’s two biggest priorities, if elected, would be education funding and criminal justice reform. “I’m running on things that truly affected my life and that truly affected a lot of people’s lives in the state,” he told ABC News in a July 4, 2018, interview.
Jacobi was born to a struggling single parent in 1992 in Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma. As a youngster, Jacobi had very few positive male role models. He was raised by his grandmother, who passed away when he was just eight. “My grandmother taught me to be very strong, very precise in what I wanted, and be goal-oriented,” Jacobi remembers. “As an eight-year-old, that’s what I did. And I kept doing things within my life, moving forward, and I always wanted to be somebody and do something with my life.” And, even at a young age, he knew education was the ticket to his success.
After his high school graduation, Jacobi attended Southeastern Oklahoma University, where he graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education and Behavior Management. While in college, Jacobi participated in the debate team, joined the Young Leaders of America, and played football and basketball.
After college, Jacobi returned to his home town, and for the past three years he has worked with at-risk youth as a crisis behavior specialist in the Lawson Public School District. During that time, he has also coached football and track, refereed basketball games, hosted a weekly radio show, and become an ordained minister.
To learn more about Jacobi Crowley, visit his campaign website at www.jacobi4ok.com.
