Ginnie Graham
Tulsa World Columnist
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State Superintendent Ryan Walters never lets a headline-grabbing opportunity get by him, regardless of the legality or morality behind his actions. It’s all smoke-and-mirrors to hide the chaos that has become the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Walters was voted into office on a campaign of bringing Christianity into schools and pushing American “exceptionalism.” He had no administrative experience.
To appropriate a line from the show “King of the Hill”: Walters is not making Christianity better, he’s making education worse.
Walters issued an edict on Monday for all public school students and staff to basically stop, drop and pray at noon the next day to honor slain national conservative figure Charlie Kirk. It was a gross move of exploitation over a tragic murder that millions of Americans are continuing to process.
What Walters did has nothing to do with Kirk. He used a moment to manipulate a political opportunity for himself. What an indecent thing to do.
Schools know how to handle national tragedies with their students based on their age, emotional maturity and knowledge of what happened. A kindergartner isn’t going to understand as much as a high school senior.
My parents watched as President John F. Kennedy was killed, followed by his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. My generation witnessed the space shuttle Challenger explode in real-time while at school.
Educators have been with their students as they sorted through the disasters of the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11 attacks and countless mass shootings. They know that students work through things differently.
Walters has never respected the expertise of educators or local control. This forced moment of silence exceeded his legal authority and further politicized a man’s murder to gain attention. He got it with national headlines that didn’t make Oklahoma look good.
It overshadowed the Oklahoma Supreme Court halting his new social studies standards that inserted Christian nationalist and revisionist history narratives. The stay is in effect while litigation proceeds. It’s one of more than 20 state and federal lawsuits that have been filed against Walters and OSDE. That is on top of a long list of financial and administrative mismanagement since he took office.
Instead of focusing on his job, Walters promises to investigate 12 districts and 70 teachers, who were reported on a McCarthy-esque hotline, for “refusing to honor his memory,” as stated on his X account.
Is it any wonder our state has an escalating teacher shortage crisis and worsening academic outcomes?
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Moments of silence are a good thing and shouldn’t be used in threatening ways.
Oklahoma has mandated a moment of silence in schools by law since 2002. At the time, it was controversial because it was an end-run tactic to mandate prayer in public school. But it’s worked out.
Schools typically hold a moment a silence at the start of the day after saying the Pledge of Allegiance. At least, that’s how it has worked in Tulsa Public Schools for 25 years.
The silence of a school for 60 seconds offers a chance to get centered. Some students pray while others meditate, think or just zone out. No matter what they do, it calms what can be hectic mornings. Then, they focus on the day ahead.
School days are structured around curriculum with some rigidity. In high school, upperclassmen sometimes shuffle between college concurrent enrollment or Career Tech buildings.
Walters demanded a second moment of silence to be held the next day at noon, which coincides with lunches, recesses and class changes. Some lunch times are as short as 20 minutes, not much time to eat and get to class.
To all-of-a-sudden demand a day be interrupted is no small ask. He knows this but is attempting to distract Oklahomans from his actual governance.
Oklahoma school districts followed the law in continuing to have the daily moment of silence. They did nothing wrong.
Some districts, in their notifications to parents and staff, stated that if someone wanted to take a moment on their own or use the state-mandated minute to contemplate Kirk’s life and/or death, they were welcome to do so.
Also, teacher credentials cannot be revoked without the approval of the State Board of Education. Walters has sought to end the careers of teachers who express political views different from his, even if made off the clock on their private social media accounts. It’s all very Big Brother.
There are more important things for OSDE to be doing, like administering federal funds on time and figuring out how to keep and retain educators so the state doesn’t have more than 4,600 untrained teachers in classrooms — again.
State Board of Education members are the hope for sanity here; however, Walters has been picking fights with the ones who don’t rubberstamp his wishes or question his facts and motives. They deserve public support for continuing to do this voluntary job.
Oklahomans, especially our children, deserve so much better than this.
ginnie.graham@
tulsaworld.com
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Ginnie Graham
Tulsa World Columnist
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