Tulsa schools removing explicit books from libraries
Oklahoma Education Secretary Ryan Walters argues school administrators are more concerned with 'woke ideology' than students' development.
Oklahoma Education Secretary Ryan Walters brought to light the explicit content of two books that were made available to middle school students by Tulsa Public Schools. On "Fox & Friends" Friday, Walters called out the school district’s "woke" superintendent for standing by the graphic material.
The two books, "Gender Queer" and "Flamer," were removed from shelves after Walters made a Facebook post about the nature of the content. His post, however, was taken down by Facebook, which deemed the material to be too graphic.
Walters said it’s "wild" for schools to offer content that even Facebook deems inappropriate.
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"We’ve got woke Facebook that's got higher standards than the superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools," he told host Steve Doocy. "It's just outrageous."
Walters said the superintendent told him to "knock it off" when he initially posted on Facebook. The district eventually took action and removed the books when Walters’ post was flagged on social media.
He called the superintendent a "social justice warrior" and noted that Tulsa Public Schools also violated the state’s ban on critical race theory in classrooms.
"This is indicative of why this is one of the lowest performing schools in our state. We've got folks in positions of power and administrators that are more focused on a woke ideology and an agenda rather than making sure kids can read and write," he said.
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Walters warned these tactics by the far-left have the ultimate goal of teaching young people to "hate America."
A spokesperson for the district said in a statement that the district is committed to providing access to diverse, age-appropriate materials for students.
"When we were made aware of the two books with inappropriate images, we immediately asked the secondary schools that had them to remove them from their libraries," the spokesperson wrote Thursday.
Yorba Linda, CA, Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - The Placentia Yorba Linda School Board discusses a proposed resolution to ban teaching critical race theory in schools. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
But Walters maintained that requiring transparency of schools will only uncover more instances of "woke" practices.
"What we've got to do is go back to teaching our history and ensuring that every young person has the ability to be successful and be inspired by our history," he said.
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"We're the greatest country in the history of the world, and our kids need to know that."
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