JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div class="columns" id="columns">
    <div class="column"><input type="checkbox" name="col_list[]" value="cows">cows</div>
    <div class="column"><input type="checkbox" name="col_list[]" value="cows">cows</div>
    <div class="column"><input type="checkbox" name="col_list[]" value="cows">cows</div>
    <div class="column"><input type="checkbox" name="col_list[]" value="cows">cows</div>
    <div name="columnClear" class="contentClear" id="columnClear">Not a .column</div>
</div>

JavaScript

var col_wrapper = document.getElementById("columns").getElementsByTagName("div");

var elementsToRemove = [];
for (var i = 0; i < col_wrapper.length; i++) {
    if (col_wrapper[i].className.toLowerCase() == "column") {
        elementsToRemove.push(col_wrapper[i]);
    }
}
for(var i = 0; i < elementsToRemove.length; i++) {
    elementsToRemove[i].parentNode.removeChild(elementsToRemove[i]);
}