Today, I woke up to a tweet being shared by Oklahoma political reporters from Ryan Walters' twitter account. In it, he promotes an opinion piece he wrote for Fox News about how the "woke mob" ignored the truth. It is behind a paywall, and I don't know that I want to add to the numbers on that article or even interact with Fox News at all. 

This comes right after OSU students heckled him out of a presentation hosted by a student chapter of Turning Point. (The O'Colly, OK Superintendent Ryan Walters event angers audience, inspires protests")  That is only the barest of his follies over the last month, including:

Losing OSDE's Chief Legal Counsel, Associate Legal Counsel, and Executive Director of Accreditation, leading his BFF Stitt to claim that a mass exodus from the department was a great thing, because who needs all of those bureaucrats (nevermind active lawsuits against the department. ) (kfor.com, 3/23/24, Sources: OSDE Chief of Staff joininh growing list of high-level resignations)

Passing rules about education when he isn't legally able to do so. The legislature has that power. (The Oklahoman, 4/18/24, "Ryan Walters' new OSDE rules draw bipartisan concern from lawmakers")

A recent executive hire for the department,  Pamela Smith-Gordon quit after no interaction with Walters.  She cited symptoms of severe mismanagement including losing millions in grants, pushing public humiliation and political agenda over education. (The Advocate, April 18, "Conservative ex-official warns of crisis in Oklahoma schools under anti-LGBTQ+ superintendent Ryan Walters")

(Human Rights Campaign, 4/17/24, ICYMI: Former OSDE Staffer, Hired by Ryan Walters, Worried "public schools won't survive the rest of his term")

The Oklahoma AG has taken up the case against Walters' OSDE violations against the separation of church and state. (Muskogee Phoenix, 4/17/24, "other views: AG's righteous fight opposite of Walters'")

The Tulsa School System, who has been the target of a lot of action, (in a move that began against the head of Tulsa schools and was widely considered to be rooted in racism) sent a strong message in voting in school board members that oppose Ryan Walters. (The Frontier, 4/5/24, Ryan Walters' shadow looms over election losses in three Tulsa Schools)

Ryan Walters lost his Chief of Staff a month ago, taking the dive for illegally contracting education specialists from a Washington public relations agency and filing paperwork for a chapter of said agency to work around the purchasing rules in the OK government. Of course, they foolishly had already made a contract for services that have already been acted on. (The Oklahoman, 3/23/24, News Report: Ryan Walters loses chief of staff, latest agency defection). 

This isn't even a month's worth of news stories. Walters is actively performing illegal actions, mispending tax dollars, losing grant money integral to school operations, targeting schools for personal reasons, abusing ok's education system for self-promotion, and using the death of an Oklahoma child to further his own agenda. 

It's time that we, the "woke mob," demand his removal from office, while we still have a public school system. Opinions shared in multiple news agencies have asserted that Walters (and Oklahoma) is the test case for the conservative push against public education,  moving the schools to a for-profit model that is heavy in a particular flavor of Christianity. 

Please share this petition one more time, for the sake of Oklahoma students, including Nex, who deserved better from Oklahoma.