State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks during a special meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education at the Oliver Hodge Building on the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City, on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has said he will “absolutely” penalize schools that refuse to follow his order to show students a video of him praying for President-elect Donald Trump. At least eight school districts have refused to follow his order and the state’s Republican attorney general called Walters’s order “unenforceable.”
“Rogue superintendents that have been pushing books like Gender Queer and Flamer on kids,” Walters told the right-wing media outlet Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, naming two LGBTQ+-inclusive books that right-wing activists repeatedly include on book ban lists. “So they want to include pornography, but they don’t want to include the Bible and they don’t want to allow a prayer, we’re not going to tolerate it here in the state of Oklahoma,” he added.
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At least eight school districts, including some of the state’s largest, have refused to show Walters’ prayer. In the video, Walters blames the “radical left” for attacking religious liberty in schools, discusses the goals of his new Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism and prays for the former and future president.
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In a message to parents, Edmond School District Superintendent Angela Grunewald wrote, “Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court unanimously ruled that we have the authority to make these decisions at the local level and we will continue to do so.”
A spokesperson for Walter’s office, Dan Isett, didn’t answer The Journal Records‘ inquiry about Walters’ authority to issue such an order nor what penalty schools would face for ignoring his order. “Supt. Walters is ending the ongoing attacks on President Donald Trump and his agenda to get prayer back in schools,” Isett replied.
Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt said in a statement, “There is no statutory authority for the state schools superintendent to require all students to watch a specific video. Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights.”
State Sen. Mark Mann (D), a former Education Department official, advised schools not to comply with Walters’ order, saying that Walter’s department lacks the legal authority to make such an order.
This isn’t the first time schools have defied Walters’ attempt to insert religion into public schools. In autumn, Walters mandated that public schools teach about the Bible and provide a copy of the text and The 10 Commandments in all classrooms. At least 46 school districts across the state said they wouldn’t comply.
Most of the schools cited Oklahoma law, which grants school districts discretion over instructional materials. Others cited concerns that spending funds on religious material may violate state law, while some simply said they didn’t have the funds to purchase Bibles for every classroom.
Earlier this year, Walters’ office spent just under $25,000 to purchase 532 copies of the God Bless the USA Bible — which contains a copy of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence and were advertised by Trump — spending nearly $47 on each one. Standard bibles run between $3 and $17 on Amazon, and Bibles can be custom-printed to include the aforementioned government documents at costs far less than $47 each.
Walters has said he’s willing to spend up to $6 million in taxpayer funds to provide Bibles to statewide classrooms.
