Trumpy Education Official’s Bizarre School Prayer Stunt Hits a Snag
Oklahoma public education superintendent Ryan Walters previously wanted to buy expensive Trump-endorsed Bibles.
YouTube/Oklahoma State Department of Education
The pro-Trump, Bible-thumping Oklahoma superintendent of public education can’t force schools to show students a video of him praying for the president-elect and lashing out at “woke teachers unions,” the state attorney general’s office said over the weekend.
Ryan Walters sent out the video, titled “Prayer for the Nation,” last week to school district superintendents, writing that he was requiring that the video be shown to all enrolled students. Districts were required to show it to parents as well, he wrote in his email.
The Republican education official, who had trouble with basic grammar when he lamented how “student’s rights and freedoms regarding religious liberties are continuously under assault,” added that he “encouraged” students to pray with him, but that it was not required.
In response, several school districts said they wouldn’t be playing his bizarre video, and they were in the right, the Oklahoma attorney general’s office said.
“Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights,” Phil Bacharach, a spokesperson for the AG’s office, told Oklahoma Voice.
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Walters, who griped about “gaslighting from the left” when asked to defend his choice Monday on CNN, has garnered attention lately for other overtly partisan behavior. A few months ago, he sought to purchase for schools a certain type of Bible whose specifications matched the Trump-endorsed “God Bless the USA” Bible, which costs $60, with Trump getting a portion of the sales.
That proposal was changed after legal experts said it could violate state law.
Walters is also being sued over a prior mandate requiring the Bible to be used in lesson plans in grades 5 through 12.
Relatedly, Trump has yet to name his choice for Secretary of Education. Walters' unabashed Trump flattery have led some to suggest he’s aiming for the post. Both men want to eliminate the Department of Education.
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