TV Nudity Scandal, Impeachment Calls, a Meeting No-Show: Troubles Pile Up for Oklahoma’s MAGA Schools Chief

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In the weeks following his accused of having shown explicit content on his office television, the Oklahoma school chief Ryan Walters, canceled a meeting of the State Board of Directors and jumped one next September 3, questioning his ability to supervise public education and renew the threats to avoid leadership.

Walters did not publicly comment on his absence, but a spokesperson for him said in a press release: “The Superintendent Walters focuses on the resolution of the big problems faced by the schools of Oklahoma.”

His decision to miss last week’s meeting, after its cancellation of the August session, drew attention to the multiple controversies in which he prevented and rekindled calls to his dismissal. His absence would have marked the first time during the decades that a superintendent jumped the meeting of the board of directors.

In July, two members of the Education Board of Directors, Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson, said they had seen a complete frontal nudity on television from the Walters office during an executive session of the Board of Directors. The state Superintendent not only vehemently denied the affirmations, but also accused the duo of having spread “lies” about him in a coordinated attack by Governor Kevin Stitt, a republican colleague with whom Walters clashed.

An investigation into the July incident remains in progress. However, the president of the Oklahoma Chamber Kyle Hilbert said in August that his preliminary conclusions suggested that neither Walters nor the members of the board of directors had acted badly. Nudity appeared on television from the Walters office, said Hilbert, but only because of a “bizarre accident involving a newly installed defect in a preprogrammed channel”.

Tensions between Walters and the members of the board of directors did not dissipate after Hilbert’s conclusions. Carson, in particular, said that she had been offended by the suggestion that she and her colleague were going to lie, and Walters smoking damage to her reputation.

About two weeks after the accusations, hundreds of demonstrators – members of the new Oklahoma’s independent state political party – gathered at the State Capitol to demand its dismissal. The demonstrators raised fears that OKLAHOMA ranked 50th in a report on the quality of public schools across the country, a criticism that connects to a wider network of controversies involving Walters. He announced this summer that Oklahoma students would receive a free lunch although the state legislature did not budget many school districts for such participation. He also began to demand California and New York transplants that apply for jobs from Oklahoma teachers to pass an “America First” test focused on the ideological designed by the Prageru conservative organization.

Because of its current tensions with Stitt on questions such as immigration – Walters wanted to question the families of public schools on their legal status and the governor opposed – the superintendent was not present when the secretary of education Linda McMahon went to Oklahoma as part of her national tour “return of education in the United States” in August. Stitt, however, appeared with the secretary. President Donald Trump would have considered Walters for McMahon’s position after having become president elected in November. The state Superintendent sparked a backlash in 2024 after trying to obtain bibles related to Trump in all the classrooms of Oklahoma Public School up to $ 3 million, a plan he then returned.

The absence of Walters of the meeting of the Board of Directors increased the maintenance of his management. During the brief session on Wednesday, the board of directors decided to hire a new lawyer to replace his previous lawyer, who recently resigned. The members of the board of directors and legislators claim that the cancellation of Walters of the August meeting and non-participation during the urgent questions on Wednesday are not addressed.

Senator of the State Mark Mann, a democrat of Oklahoma City, described the behavior of Walters at Oklahoma’s News 4 as “really just a lack of duty”. He added: “This agency barely works; It is in the worst form in which she has ever been. ”

The representative of the State Ellen Pogemiller, also a democrat of Oklahoma City, said that it was not too late to continue the indictment.

“As a taxpayer, I would have liked my state superintendent to appear in a meeting like that,” she said.

The president of education in the House, Dick Lowe, a Republican, said he was unhappy with the management of Walters. But he is not ready to oust the superintendent from his functions.

The State Board of Education should have its next regular meeting on September 25.