OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Rob Standridge, R-Norman, released the following statement Thursday after the Senate voted Wednesday in favor of House Bill 1775.  Standridge, R-Norman, is a coauthor of the legislation, by Sen.  David Bullard, R-Durant, and Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore.  According to HB 1775, no teacher, or administrator or other employee of a state agency, school district, charter school or virtual charter school would be required to engage in training, orientation or therapy that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping or blame on the basis of race or sex.

“I would like to thank my Senate friends for the passage of House Bill 1775. I am honored to be a coauthor on this desperately needed legislation in the face of the highly inappropriate and racist training going on in Oklahoma schools today.  It’s happening in the schools in my hometown of Norman, where teacher training, using terms like ‘whiteness,’ ‘institutionalized racism,’ and ‘white supremacy,’ are leading children to judge each other more by the color of their skin than the content of their character—the exact opposite of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream.

“I encourage every parent to make certain their schools are not making some students feel that, solely based on the color of their skin, they are naturally racist, they are inferior or superior, or in any way anything but equal to any other student. The state and every public institution in Oklahoma, including schools, should promote that every single child’s life and education matters equally, and that no child is less or more based on the color of their skin. No single school in this state should use their control and influence over the impressionable minds of young children to inject racist and sexist ideologies.”