We’ll see what happens.
We’ll see how draconian Ryan Walters is prepared to try to be, if he even can be, this time around.
Not so long ago Walters’ perverted vision of his job led him to chase Tulsa Public Schools superintendent Deborah Gist out of hers.
She left and fears TPS would lose accreditation went away.
Now, after several school districts chose not to partake in half-staffing their flags in honor of assassinated right-wing political influencer Charlie Kirk, nor to observe a moment of silence in Kirk’s honor, the state-superintendent-in-name-only has announced investigations to be afoot.
Here is that announcement:
“It has been one week since the horrific political assassination of Charlie Kirk. In that time, we have seen teachers and schools across Oklahoma display vile rhetoric promoting the killing of a man who stood for free speech and debate.
“Over the past week, we have received a total of 224 reports through our Awareity software on defamatory comments, 30 Awareity reports on not observing a moment of silence and 3 reports on schools who refused to fly their flag at half staff. Our OSDE teams have investigated each report and identified 70 certified teachers, from 44 districts, who have made statements regarding Charlie Kirk's murder and 12 school districts who did not participate in a moment of silence.
“Superintendent Walters has made it clear that all teachers must abide by a set of standards written into the code of conduct. Any teacher posting defamatory and egregious comments will NOT be teaching in Oklahoma classrooms and any school that refused to participate in a moment of silence and/or lower their flags for Charlie Kirk is currently under investigation”
So there’s that.
Here are a few things about that:
One, Walters can’t do much of anything all by himself, nor can he do much of anything in the state school board without four votes of which he is but one and not lately in the majority, because lately that majority’s been the block of Ryan Deatherage, Becky Carson, Mike Tinney and Chris Van Denhende.
As you may know, the quartet recently put on a state school board meeting all by itself, hiring the board’s new attorney all by itself, doing it all without Walters even attending because the small man’s at a real loss when not allowed to be an authoritarian.
Further, I’d love to know what and who comprises the investigative arm of the state department of education, if anything and anybody at all, because it might have been very helpful in the wake of naked women appearing on Walters’ television but, alas, we heard nothing about it.
Not to mention what teachers in the state might do should Walters make too many of their lives miserable all at once for no good reason, because they could always strike and if they did Walters would be blamed.
It’s the last thing anybody wants, including a few elected officials still capable of making Walters’ life very unpleasant very quickly.
Perhaps I’ll be wrong, but I fail to see much coming of his threats.
What he really appears to be doing is spinning, sprawling and spiraling in the midst of an all-time losing streak that’s piled up quickly.
Let us review:
1. He lost his board.
As mentioned above, he has.
Governor Kevin Stitt can’t be trusted because he delivered Walters to us in the first place. Thankfully, he has since departed Walters, appointing four state school board members who appear determined to act independently and in the best interests of public education.
It is so telling Walters chose not to attend the most recent special meeting, Sept. 3, occurring days after he unilaterally canceled the regular meeting state law demands.
2. The new social studies standards he hoodwinked into being, that state senate pro tem Lonnie Paxton could have tried to block but chose not to, proving politics, not the best interests of Oklahoma students, is what it’s all about for our elected Republican leaders … were stayed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday, the court formally announcing it would take up the case at a later date.
The court said it wouldn’t be taking up the case only last month, but wonderfully changed its mind.
For those who don’t remember the skullduggery Walters employed to get the standards passed in the first place, The Oklahoman’s Murray Evans recounted it nicely.
A draft version of the [new] standards was released for public comment in December. That version of the standards remained on the state Department of Education’s website when the board, with the three new members, met in late February. The board members had not been sent the final version of the standards – a lengthy document – until about 4 p.m. the day before a 9:30 a.m. meeting.
During the meeting, the new members – Chris Van Denhende, Ryan Deatherage and Michael Tinney – all asked for more time to review the new standards. Deatherage, who is dyslexic, specifically asked to table the motion to approve the standards by a month. It was voted down after Walters incorrectly told board members the standards needed to be approved that day to meet legislative deadlines, when the deadline wasn’t for more than two months later.
Walters also didn’t tell them of last-minute changes he’d made to the standards, which among other items, included the election-denial language. Based on what Walters told them, Van Denhende and Tinney were part of a 5-1 majority to approve the standards. Tinney later told The Oklahoman he realized he’d been deceived when he compared a copy of the draft standards he’d pulled off the website to the version he’d been emailed the day before the meeting.
Also, one hopes, the case won’t be decided until after spring semester begins, thus keeping the new wrong standards out of schools the length of the current academic year at least.
3. Nobody’s listening to him.
Apart from the question of the state department of education employing any real investigators, it’s hilarious to look at a memo in which Walters claims school districts will be investigated for not observing his ordered moment of silence.
That’s because no less than the Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Edmond, Mid-Del, Deer Creek, Moore, Piedmont, Yukon, Broken Arrow, Union, Owasso and Claremore public schools (and perhaps other districts I can’t quickly confirm) flat out announced they would not be adding an additional moment of silence to their schedules.
Yes, Walters remains capable of scaring teachers, who really could use the backing of the governor, the attorney general, or an effective majority in the house or senate to do them a solid, announcing there will be no lawless purges based upon the whims of a man most of them hate despite sharing a party with him.
But even if they don’t, firings and license removals still require four votes from the state board and Walters appears not to have them.
4. He just got busted by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office and should he ever run for office again, his behavior in the aftermath of naked women being seen on his television is bound to follow him.
NonDoc offered a fine story about it you can read here.
A few notes:
• Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson, taking questions about his department’s investigation, said this of Walters: “How dare anybody try to ruin the credibility of this agency and the professionalism that we bring to this office and to this community every day.”
• Walters never did make his electronic devices available. A search warrant for them was drawn up, but not executed.
What Walters did do was release downloaded information of his choosing from his desktop and laptop computers, his cell phone and iPad.
• There was no evidence of a conspiracy between state school board members and the governor. It was just something Walters decided to say, unworried about the slander laws of our state and nation.
What a guy.
Can he go lower?
Probably.
He always does.