'Rogue districts': State superintendent weighs in on EPS court action

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R-Okla.) weighed in on the pending legal action Edmond Public Schools brought forward during Thursday's State Board of Education meeting.

As previously reported, there's an ongoing dispute related to curriculum materials and whether the district can legally follow orders from the Oklahoma State Department of Education to remove certain books from its libraries.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed to take up the case per EPS's request.

A letter submitted to the court dated Feb. 21st shows one Edmond parent's argument against two books included in the district's tenth-grade English curriculum.

The books under question are The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.

The materials came under fire after the state department got at least five complaints concerning them from Apr. to Sept. 2023.

According to Superintendent Walters, "I'm not going to let the state go backwards [sic] because we have a few rogue districts that want to go out there and allow pornography in classrooms across the state."

Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Angela Grunewald rejected such characterizations during a press conference on Tuesday.

"We do not have pornography in our classrooms, in our libraries, at Edmond Public Schools," she asserted.

According to the district, Edmond parents can opt their kids out of reading books in class they don't approve of.

The parent who penned the letter posited that no minor should be reading them because of various descriptions rape, pedophilia, and abuse.

The state superintendent noted, "That district decided to sue us on the entirety of our rules that ban pornographic material and sexually explicit material to minors."

OSDE directed EPS to remove the books from their libraries.

However, the district said the complaint concerned curriculum materials—so the department's order didn't even address the main issue at hand.

The district also argued the department's order to remove the books was illegal because they have to follow district policies on book removal—and can't just remove books from shelves.

The state superintendent said EPS is trying to undermine department rules blocking student access to pornographic material.

"The voters were clear in Oklahoma when they voted me into office to clean up our schools and get the focus back on academics," he shared.

The court will review the case on Mar. 5 at 10:30 a.m.