The State Board of Education last month approved Superintendent Ryan Walters' move for emergency rules that prohibit any school district from altering a student's gender on their school records without the state board's approval. Even with a court order.
The board will consider two such requests — from Cushing and Moore schools — at its regular meeting Thursday, according to an agenda.
Walters in September said Moore Public Schools asked the department for guidance after a judge approved student's name and gender change and ordered records to be updated accordingly.
Walters urged the board to take action to oppose the 'radical, woke, activist judge.' But the judges just affirmed the parents' decision. In both cases, the parents petitioned for the legal changes after their child was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
After last month's meeting, I asked Walters how his rules square with situations like these, when parents want the records changed.
'You can't change truth, you can't change reality,' Walters said. 'So if it says you're a gender, that's the gender that you are. You can't go back and change a birth certificate, so we've got to stand for truth and reality in society and that's what I'm going to continue to fight for in our schools.' Oklahoma law does allow birth certificates to be amended with a court order.
Gov. Kevin Stitt recently appointed two new members to the Board of Education. They are Zach Archer, a managing director at Great Plains Investment Services and member of the Hammon Public Schools board, and Alex Gray, a managing partner at American Global Strategies consulting firm, according to the governor's office.
Gray was a senior policy advisor to former President Donald Trump. Last year he ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by Markwayne Mullin but received less than 1 percent of votes in the Republican primary.
Questions, comments, story ideas? Reach out by email or direct message. Also, don't miss my recent interviews with KOSU about GEER 2 funding and with OETA about the state's contract for a Catholic online charter school.