Oklahoma superintendent mandates students watch announcement of new religious department

FILE - Ryan Walters, Republican state superintendent candidate, speaks, June 28, 2022, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

By KEN MILLER Associated Press

EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma’s education superintendent has sent an email to public school superintendents requiring them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism within the state Department of Education.

Ryan Walters, a Republican, announced the new office on Wednesday and on Thursday sent the email to school superintendents statewide.

“In one of the first steps of the newly created department, we are requiring all of Oklahoma schools to play the attached video to all kids that are enrolled,” according to the email.

Districts were also told to send the video to all parents of students.

The office of state Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a statement on Friday saying Walters has no authority under state law to issue such a mandate.

“Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control, and individual free-exercise rights,” the statement said.

In the video, Walters says religious liberty has been attacked and patriotism mocked “by woke teachers unions,” then prays for the leaders of the United States after saying students do not have to join in the prayer.

“In particular, I pray for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country,” Walters said.

In announcing the new department, Walters said it would “oversee the investigation of abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism.”

Two of the state’s largest districts, Edmond in suburban Oklahoma City and Bixby in suburban Tulsa, said they have no plans to show students the video.

A spokesperson for the Tulsa district, the state’s largest, did not immediately return a phone call for comment. A spokesperson for the Oklahoma City district, the second largest, said district officials would meet to discuss the email.

Walters already faces two lawsuits over his June mandate that schools incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12. Several school districts have previously stated that they will disregard the mandate.

One of the lawsuits also notes that the initial request for proposal released by the State Department of Education to purchase the Bibles appears to have been tailored to match Bibles endorsed by now President-elect Donald Trump that sell for $59.99 each.

The request for proposal was later amended at the request of state purchasing officials.

The Associated Press reported in October that Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bible were printed in China, a country Trump has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices, at a price of less than $3 per Bible.

Walters earlier this week announced that he has purchased more than 500 Bibles to be used in Advanced Placement government classes.

A statement from the education department said the 500 Bibles are “God Bless the USA Bibles,” were ordered Thursday for about $25,000, and will arrive “in the coming weeks.”

Walters, a former public school teacher elected in 2022, ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms.

“He’s the one pushing indoctrination,” said one Oklahoma resident. “It’s one thing to have your own beliefs, but trying to mandate that other people live by your beliefs is not what America is about. We pay taxes and he’s spending our money on flashy Bibles so he can try to bully people into following one specific faith, when the founding fathers fought for our freedom to choose if, when, and how we worship.”