Here's the yearbook where Ohio's Secretary of State willed a friend "some rope and a tree"
And that friend gifted "a wetback mobile" to another classmate.
The Rooster previously published screenshots of Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose willing a friend “some rope and a tree” in his high school’s senior yearbook.
The Rooster also published screenshots of LaRose’s planned response during his 2018 run for Secretary of State should the story break. LaRose’s underlings game-planned everything from LaRose’s initial call to his mother(??) to the friend willed a lynching kit to the dubious explanation that LaRose’s friend always drove around with an unsecured tire in his vehicle and LaRose used to remark his friend was always “some rope and a tree” short of a tire swing.
The revelations certainly got the chattering class chattering. But that’s all it was, chatter. Screenshots can be forged, and I’m just some random crank with a vendetta against state and local politicians. As I wrote in the immediate aftermath, those in power can easily ignore The Rooster.
In my naiveté, I figured the legitimate political press would get curious about these allegations and track down a physical copy of LaRose’s high school yearbook. That LaRose went to such lengths preparing for this moment shows what a massive story this is.
It’s also pertinent considering LaRose, while acting as Secretary of State, actively disenfranchised minority voters in the 2020 election while hilariously claiming his actions to be in the name of security.
Or so I thought.
It’s been weeks since The Rooster’s report, and legacy publications have yet to move on the issue.
As such, The Rooster traveled to the Ohio Genealogical Society in scenic Bellville (just south of Mansfield) to peruse a physical copy of LaRose’s senior yearbook, the 1997 Copley High School Chieftain: Life Between the Summers.
It’s on these pages where we get our first look at high school senior Frank Larose:
LaRose did not earn any class superlatives like “most athletic” or “most likely to disenfranchise minority voters.”
He was, however, on the football team. LaRose is the seventh name in the second row:
The book also contains the original passages reported by The Rooster in which LaRose wills “some rope and a tree” to his friend Luke:
The date of birth matches LaRose’s public birthday acknowledgments.
Also of note, LaRose’s classmate, Jacob Daniel Kroslak, gifts a Confederate flag to “Mike, Frank and Todd.”
There was another Frank in the class; however, LaRose also made gifts to Todd and Mike.
But consider LaRose’s nickname, Luke Duke, a reference to the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. The name of Luke Duke’s car was General Lee. It famously bore a Confederate flag across the roof.
The question then falls to the Luke whom LaRose gifted. There was nobody named Luke in that class. But we know from the LaRose campaign documents that “Luke” refers to Jebediah “Luke” Emich.
Emich is not pictured in the 1997 Copley Chieftain. However, he too made an entry in the notes section in which he willed “a truck that will return Frank to the border.”
Emich also gifted “a wetback mobile” to another student.
LaRose would not be the first or last high school student in Ohio to laugh at racist humor, though he would be unique in becoming the Secretary of State.
How can LaRose claim his actions as Ohio’s chief election officer aren’t about disenfranchising minority voters when he won’t even disavow teenage nonsense like this?
Hopefully, the traditional political press covers this story now that it is proven to be from a publicly obtainable book of a record and not the forged screenshots of a deranged communist blogger.
The Secretary of State’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
#2 in the front row was an amazing running back
the person above larose in the yearbook seems much nicer, can they be secretary of state?