State Superintendent Ryan Walters says he is being attacked by his enemies, including Gov. Kevin Stitt.
“What we are seeing is a political attack to assassinate my character,” Walters told Fox 25, naming the governor, education board members appointed by the governor, and “teachers’ unions.”
At a July 24 education board meeting, two members reported seeing nude women on a television in Walters’ office during executive session. Investigations by the Oklahoma County Sheriff and the Office of Management and Enterprise Services were initiated.
The Oklahoman reported OMES found it couldn’t “determine definitively whether or not an incident took place” and is waiting on the sheriff’s findings.
The two board members — Becky Carson and Ryan Deatherage — released a statement with a third member, Mike Tinney. It asks Walters to stop “smearing the names, characters and reputations of board members.”
The feud between the governor and Walters began to become public during Stitt’s State of the State address in February, when he publicly praised a superintendent pursuing legal action against Walters for defamation. Ostensibly, the fight was over Walters’ push to have students provide citizenship documentation to schools.
Walters, an unabashed fan of President Donald Trump, remains one of the most polarizing political figures in the state as he pursues “culture war” battles.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma's education system continues to struggle, according to for-profit company WalletHub. The financial website releases school rankings annually and Oklahoma fell to 50th, better than only New Mexico.
Though Walters insisted in the Fox interview that he’d been cleared, the sheriff’s office said Tuesday the investigation is in its “infancy.”
