On Monday, July 11th, 2022, in an act of political theater, three members of the Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education walked out of their scheduled board meeting after holding dozens of contracts necessary for the work of educating TPS students hostage because of partisan beliefs. These board members are: Dr. Jerry Griffin, E'lena Ashley, and Dr. Jennettie Marshall. 

Their reckless actions have:

• put district hiring on hold in a year where school districts across the country are expecting record teacher shortages. 
• led to some teachers previously committed to the district to pass on employment and seek employment with districts that have a pro-teacher, pro-public school board. 
• effectively ended a contract with Reading Partners, an organization that makes it possible for schools to provide Tier 2 reading intervention to the large number of students who need it. 
• ended the district's use of TalkingPoints, a tool that allows schools and teachers to communicate with families in 200 different languages. 
• refused to issue bonds (that were approved by 70% of voters) needed to fund technology purchases, transportation costs, and general operating costs of the district.
• made it more difficult for at-risk students to access wrap-around services at TPS sites. 
• forced TPS students to act as pawns in a partisan effort to take over school boards and force extremist agendas on students in public schools. 

These board members claim to have the best interest of parents in mind, but their actions last night showed that they have absolutely no interest in doing what's right for students. By walking out of the meeting instead of letting Superintendent Deborah Gist explain how their actions will negatively impact students, teachers, and families, these board members showed that they have no intention of coming to the table to find a consensus on how they can best serve students. These "education advocates" will argue that they just wanted their questions answered before voting, but will leave out the fact that all board members receive TEN DAYS of notice to ask questions and ask for additional information before the board meets. These board members neglected to fulfill their duty to become informed concerning the issues to be considered at board meetings, as put forth in Policy 1102 of the district's Board Policy Manual, and are seeking to blame their lack of effort on district staff. 

In addition to the aforementioned issues, the following problematic events have taken place in the last two years: 

• Dr. Jerry Griffin has been accused of questioning board member Judith Barba-Perez's citizenship
• Dr. Jerry Griffin has made it clear that he is attempting to use his position on the TPS Board of Education as a launch pad for his political ambitions by announcing his intent to run for Oklahoma Superintendent of Education in April of 2022, less than two years into his four-year term. 
• Dr. Jerry Griffin turned around and announced his intent to run for Tulsa City Council in District 7 in July of 2022, once again announcing this only two years into a four-year term. 
• Dr. Jerry Griffin engaged in performative activism by pretending to be unhoused for one weekend and then claiming to understand what unhoused students in TPS are going through on a day-to-day basis. 
• E'lena Ashley shared a factually inaccurate, homophobic, and biggoted meme on her campaign page and then doubled-down by sharing it again after Tulsa residents began to call for her resignation.
• E'lena Ashley has publicly shared her xenophobic, homophobic, and transphobic views on several occasions. 
• E'lena Ashley has used her board member Facebook page to campaign for Ryan Walters for Oklahoma Superintendent of Education (post on June 24th). 
• Dr. Jerry Griffin has used his board member Facebook page to actively campaign for his election to the Tulsa City Council, despite the fact that he has not fulfilled his four-year commitment to voters in his school board district (posts from June 24th and July 7th). 

The actions of these school board members are not only creating a hostile learning environment for students and a hostile working environment for TPS teachers and staff, but they also stand in direct conflict with many of the  TPS School Board's Code of Ethics (Policy 1102). Unfortunately, there is no recall mechanism to recall these board members. If you agree that they are harming our students, teachers, and community, please sign and share this petition to make your voice heard.