Dating back to last spring, you may have noticed that whenever an Oklahoma athletic coach – or assistant principal who also served as a youth minister – is accused or charged with physical, sexual, or emotional abuse of an Oklahoma student, we generally note how Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is quiet about the issue.
Obviously, we do this to point out Walters’ hypocrisy, double standard, and the extreme lack of consistency he shows when it comes to criticizing Oklahoma teachers, and how he’s more focused on using them as political pawns in culture wars than protecting students from actual harm and abuse.
For example, if a teacher does something innocuous that doesn’t affect a student – like sharing a QR code to an online library that has LGBTQ-friendly books or moonlighting as a drag queen on Sunday morning brunches at The Boom – Walters is quick to grab his torch, pitchfork, and tan SUV keys and lead the charge to revoke their teaching credentials and keep them from working in Oklahoma public schools.
But when a good old boy football coach who shares Ryan's backward values and antiquated views on discipline and toughness does something that harms students to the point of getting law enforcement involved, Ryan becomes full mute and ignores the issue like it never happened.
You know, kind of like how he hasn’t mentioned anything about two controversial Oklahoma football coaches – Jeff Myers from Kingfisher and Phillip Koons from Ringling – recently being charged by OSBI with a variety of crimes following an investigation into the coaches’ treatment of young, impressionable high school teenagers.
Instead of filming a video from his office supporting the students and vowing to keep abusive teachers who want to turn gyms and locker rooms into nude exercise facilities and glorified fight clubs, Ryan’s pledged to bring good old-fashioned discipline back to Oklahoma schools…