Republicans Have Two Bad Choices for State School Superintendent…

Republican voters are going to have one tough choice in the upcoming runoff election for State School Superintendent – vote for “Ryan Walters 2.0” or pick a guy who admitted to physically harming a child!

That’s the big takeaway after seeing the latest controversy surrounding Robert Franklin – the more moderate, less Ryan Walters-y of the two Republicans vying to become Oklahoma’s next leader of public instruction.

Last week, the Libs of TikTok lady shared audio of Franklin admitting in a voicemail that he scratched a 12-year-old special-needs student behind the ears during some sort of altercation at a camp back in 2014.

She also included pictures of the aftermath.

Check this out:

Yep, that’s right.

The supposedly sane alternative in the race to be our next state superintendent once grabbed a kid hard enough to leave deep, penetrating scratch marks behind his ears, and then, just to make matters worse, left a nonchalant voicemail that – although apologetic – tried to brush the whole thing off as some sort of casual accident.

If that sounds crazy and alarming and makes you wonder if Franklin’s fit for office, congrats – you have a lot in common with the kid’s mom!

Here’s what she had to say about the incident:

Listen. I know context matters, and there’s obviously some election-season spin baked into this controversy, but I think I’m on the same page as the kid’s mom here.

How can you do something like that to a kid, get sent away for “re-education” over it, and then years later think, “You know what? I should run the entire state public education system.”

It reeks of arrogance almost as much as it does terrible judgment!

Not surprisingly, Franklin’s opponent – James “Ryan Walters 2.0” Taylor – also thinks Franklin should drop out of the race.

He had this to say about it:

“This race has always been about Oklahoma’s children. Too many families have lost confidence that the system will protect their children and put their needs first. Oklahoma deserves leadership that prioritizes accountability, transparency and the safety of every student. Our children deserve nothing less,” Taylor said. “As the father of a nonverbal son with special needs, this hits close to home. My heart breaks for [the child] and his family. Not only did Robert Franklin fail [the child], our education system did. That is why I am calling on Robert Franklin to immediately withdraw from the race and make this right.”

For what it’s worth, Franklin isn’t dropping out of the race. He also isn’t hiding from what happened or running away from questions about it.

He recently gave this impromptu – and kind of awkward – interview about the situation following a campaign event.

Here’s a quick bit of free advice for Mr. Franklin – the next time you’re asked questions about the time you scratched the hell out of a 12-year-old, don’t reach out and squeeze the interviewer’s shoulders! I literally thought he was about to claw him behind the ear!

Although the voicemail, photographs and mother’s account look bad, I’ll at least give Franklin some credit. Outside of this incident, he seems to have a solid résumé, and he at least had the courage to stand there and answer questions about it.

If he were like his opponent, Dr. James Taylor, he simply would have gotten up, walked away and blamed fake news. That’s basically what Taylor did when he was confronted over hiring a homophobic, Islamophobic Ryan Walters stan as his volunteer campaign manager.

I guess this is where the quandary of this race comes into play.

In a normal race with a normal opponent, the revelation that Franklin physically harmed a kid would probably be disqualifying. But as we know, this race – and Franklin’s opponent – are far from normal.

His opponent, Dr. James Taylor, is basically a TEMU Ryan Walters – an inept, unqualified culture warrior cloaked in Christian nationalism. He’s armed with the same tired collection of right-wing education grievances, conspiracy theories and social-media outrage bait that made Walters such an exhausting embarrassment in the first place.

Remember this?

Seriously, who do you want running Oklahoma public education?

The moderate, seemingly sane educator who hurt a kid at a special-needs camp and then casually left a voicemail informing the parent about it? Or some guy roaming around the state warning voters about the kitty-litter-in-public-school-bathrooms hoax while improperly using his classroom as a campaign backdrop?

Anyway, Republican voters will get one more chance to sort through their difficult choice Thursday night, when Franklin and Taylor meet for their final debate at Cameron University in Lawton.

Will Franklin convince voters he’s the sane, moderate choice despite that whole scratching-a-kid thing? Will Taylor discover another imaginary threat lurking inside Oklahoma classrooms? Will either man somehow make the other one look like the better option?

I guess we'll all have to tune in to find out.

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.