Ryan Walters’ McCarthyism is destroying Okla public education

Last Updated on September 7, 2022, 11:25 AM | Published: September 7, 2022

Education Secretary Ryan Walters’ threat to revoke former Norman High School teacher Summer Boismier’s teaching license sounds the alarm: an authoritarian theocracy is upon us in Oklahoma. 

Walters, an appointed politician, attacked Boismier for her decision to share Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned digital collection. In a video circulated on Twitter, Walters said he would personally revoke teaching certificates of educators found — or, let’s be honest, even suspected — of violating House Bill 1775. 

He is running against 2020 State Teacher of the Year Jenna Nelson for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an elected position by state-wide vote.

“If you don’t have a teaching certificate or an administrative certificate, you’re not working in schools,” Walters told a group of voters during a campaign stop. “The state superintendent can take those away.” 

He then made a douchey motion with his hand to suggest he was calling in the chips, that he would be eradicating independent thought, one teacher at a time. 

Walters also issued a letter calling for the revocation of Boismier’s teaching certificate.

In light of recent events leading to the subsequent firing of Norman High School English Teacher Summer Boismier, I am asking the Oklahoma State Board of Education to revoke her teaching license immediately,” Walters said in a letter. 

The problem with Walters’ letter? Boismier was not fired. 

She resigned rather than teach at a school that was successfully intimidated by the storm troopers of ignorance. Walters lied about Boismier in print, and I sincerely hope she takes advantage of all the available case law on libel and defamation and hires a lawyer with killer instincts. 

Walters retracted the letter a few hours later, citing a “clerical error.” A clerical error is when a clerk misfiles a document, as opposed to a full-blown libel against a private citizen. 

But Walters’ lie hit its desired audience. A good portion of the Oklahoma electorate, albeit a portion that was inclined to vote for Walters under any circumstances, now believes that Boismier was fired when she was not. The bully pulpit has a real bully shouting “Woke!” from it. 

HB 1775 is a deeply flawed and, I believe, purposely vague piece of legislation that Walters is using as a cudgel against his political foes. It was written and passed during the Republican Party’s media witch trials over Critical Race Theory, which is not taught in Oklahoma’s public schools but should be, given our state’s history of race massacres and celebrations of colonial land theft. 

Keeping people uninformed, oppressed and hopeless is the key political strategy of Gov. Kevin Stitt in unleashing Walters on our state’s educators. 

Walters is a modern Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the chief inquisitor during the “red scare” of the 1950s, attempting to obliterate culture and independent thought in a nation that supposedly cares about those things. During the House Un-American Activities Committee’s reign of terror, film studios and publishers severed ties or “blackballed” artists whom McCarthy labeled as communists.  

So, many schools like Norman Public Schools are self-censoring for fear of Walters’ retaliation. 

PEN America, a century-old organization that works to preserve free expression in America, maintains a public spreadsheet of books that have either been banned or been the subject of a proposed ban, and it is broken down by the public schools or other organizations behind the bans. 

According to the spreadsheet, Edmond Public Schools banned Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” from its classrooms and libraries. This book can be life-changing for young readers as it artfully explains 20th century racism, but Stitt and Walters do not want to change lives for the better. 

Elsewhere, let’s just say that Bristow Public Schools have been adding to their pile of kindling a lot lately, banning S.E. Hinton’s classic “The Outsiders” and scores of other texts that might make a young reader think differently about class or race. 

Walters can be stopped by a wave of concerned voters from both parties, but Walters is deliberately purging teachers he brands with the term “liberal,” framing this as “us versus them.” 

In that spirit, there needs to be a whole lot of “us” showing up against “them” in November.

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