Trial dates set in 2 federal lawsuits filed against state Superintendent Ryan Walters
Trial dates have been set in two federal lawsuits filed against state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, one by a former Norman High School teacher and another by a former Oklahoma State Department of Education employee.
After a hearing Wednesday in Oklahoma City, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot set April 8, 2025, as the trial date in the wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Janessa Bointy of Edmond, according to Bointy's attorney, Leah Roper. Bointy accused the department and Walters of firing her for speaking about the importance of mental health resources at a March 6 meeting of the Edmond school board.
Meanwhile, court documents showed U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Jones set a June 2025 trial date in the defamation lawsuit filed by former Norman teacher Summer Boismier.
A hearing on a third lawsuit involving Walters, filed by a Moore Public Schools student, was also held Wednesday in Cleveland County District Court in Norman, where a judge agreed to impose a protective order filed by the student against Walters.
Boismier and Walters long have been at odds. Boismier resigned from Norman Public Schools in August 2022 after drawing attention to her protest against House Bill 1775, an Oklahoma law that prohibits schools from covering certain concepts on race and gender. In her classroom, Boismier covered shelves with red butcher paper and posted a sign written in black marker that read, "Books the state doesn't want you to read." She also posted a QR code to the Brooklyn Public Library, which gives students online access to banned books.
Boismier sued Walters in federal court in August 2023, claiming posts published by Walters on his public accounts on X in August 2022 — when he served as Gov. Kevin Stitt’s secretary of education — contained “false and misleading statements,” including that Boismier had been fired from Norman Public Schools, that she had distributed pornography to students and that she had “sexualized her classroom.”
Boismier said in her lawsuit she “was a teacher rather than a politician or public figure” when those statements were published. Walters has said his statements don’t constitute libel or defamation and has cited multiple defenses, including those related to his First Amendment right to free speech.
Walters asked for the case to be dismissed, but in April, Jones declined to do so, allowing it to move forward. According to court documents filed since then, the parties in the lawsuit expect legal discovery in the case to last about eight months — the court has set a deadline of March 5, 2025 ― and that the possibility of a settlement is “poor.”
Those same documents indicate the case is on Jones’ trial docket for June 2025 and the length of the trial is expected to be four days.
Timothy Davis, an attorney for Walters, didn't comment on the case when reached by The Oklahoman on Wednesday. Brady Henderson, an attorney for Boismier, said a scheduling order was issued by the judge and that would set the pretrial and trial dates for next summer.
"We look forward to making our case in court," Henderson said.
Former employee's wrongful termination lawsuit now has a trial date
Bointy had worked at the state Education Department since 2020 as a school counselor specialist facilitating a mental health-focused federal grant program called Project AWARE East. After learning of a student's suicide, she said she felt compelled to speak at the Edmond school board meeting. Her children attend that school district.
For two minutes, Bointy encouraged the district to boost its mental health programs and suggested administrators apply for a federal grant for related trainings. She said she would have given the same advice to every school district, if she could.
Three days later, the state Education Department fired her. Her termination letter, which The Oklahoman reviewed, stated Bointy violated the agency's media policy and her confidentiality agreement by speaking at the board meeting. The letter also cited a year-old complaint that she had conducted personal business during work hours.
She sued Walters and the state agency in Oklahoma County District Court in September. Walters asked for the case to be moved to the federal system after Oklahoma County District Court Judge Sheila Stinson didn’t dismiss the lawsuit. Walters then asked Friot to dismiss the case, but Friot allowed a portion of Bointy’s lawsuit to stand. That ruling means Walters must file a response to the original lawsuit, which means the case will move into the discovery phase. That must be completed by March 15, according to court documents.
“Now comes the part where the work really happens, where information gets traded back and forth between the parties and we get to learn more about the who, what, why, how of what actually happened and why they decided to let Janessa go,” said Roper, Bointy's attorney.
Court documents filed in the federal portion of the case note the parties plan to request a joint protective order “to govern confidential information in the case.” Those documents also anticipate an eight-month window for discovery proceedings, a “poor” outlook for a potential settlement and a five-day estimate for the length of a potential trial.
Davis, who's also serving as an attorney for Walters in Bointy's lawsuit, declined comment.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Federal judges set trial dates in 2 lawsuits involving Ryan Walters
