This Oklahoma teacher helped students get banned books. An official wants her license revoked

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma governor’s education secretary called to take away the teaching license of a high school teacher who resigned in opposition to House Bill 1775, a state law banning certain race and gender concepts from schools.

Ryan Walters, who is also a candidate to become the state's next chief of public schools, asked the Oklahoma State Board of Education on Wednesday to revoke Summer Boismier’s certification immediately.

He falsely stated Boismier had been fired from Norman Public Schools after a parent complained of the teacher’s objections to the law and attempts to give students resources to access banned books outside the classroom.

“There is no place for a teacher with a liberal political agenda in the classroom,” Walters said in a letter posted to social media.

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Revoking a teacher’s certification is a grave penalty often reserved for educators who commit criminal wrongdoing.

Walters is the chief education adviser to Gov. Kevin Stitt. He won the Republican nomination for state schools superintendent and will face Democrat Jena Nelson, a former Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, in the Nov. 8 general election.

“Fellow Oklahomans, this is the Republican candidate for State Superintendent,” Boismier said in a Wednesday message to The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network. “His words speak for themselves. Please vote accordingly.”

Nelson called HB 1775 an “ambiguous” law that frightens teachers.

“I think it is a very dangerous bill and can open the doors for us to harm schools, to harm teachers,” Nelson said last week.

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Current state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, the head of the state Board of Education, declined to comment on Walters’ call to revoke Boismier’s certification.

Trying to help students access banned books outside the classroom

After the first day of classes on Aug. 19, a parent complained about a display in Boismier’s Norman High School classroom and of comments the teacher made against HB 1775.

Boismier, an English teacher, had covered all of her classroom bookshelves with red butcher paper 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.

The teacher said she told her students HB 1775 is a “bigoted effort to legislate feelings.”

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“I can’t think of a single example in history where the folks who have been banning the books turn out to be the quote-unquote good guys,” Boismier previously told The Oklahoman. “I am wholesale opposed to restricting access to information. If I am forced to do that very thing, then I want to make sure students understand that this is not a conviction that I hold."

What is Oklahoma's HB 1775?

HB 1775 prohibits Oklahoma schools from teaching eight concepts on race and gender – including as a person is inherently racist or oppressive because of their race or sex, that people bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by others of their same race or sex, and that individuals should feel discomfort on account of their race or sex.

Since HB 1775 passed in May 2021, the state Board of Education punished Tulsa Public Schools after a teacher complained of an implicit bias training. It also demoted Mustang Public Schools because a student felt uncomfortable being asked in a team-building activity whether anyone in the room had experienced discrimination.

Since Tulsa and Mustang’s penalty, Norman implemented new rules for classroom books in light of “the serious legal consequences for teachers and districts regarding HB 1775,” district spokesperson Wes Moody said.

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The policy required Norman teachers to verify they had either read every book in their classroom or could provide two professional sources confirming each title’s age and content appropriateness.

Boismier covered her bookshelves rather than remove each title until it could be reviewed. Norman administrators met with her about the display, but she was never suspended nor was her job ever in jeopardy, Moody said.

Walters' platform opposing 'woke ideology'

Walters claimed students might have accessed inappropriate content through the Brooklyn library QR code.

“Ms. Boismier’s providing access to banned and pornographic material to students is unacceptable and we must ensure she doesn’t go to another district and do the same thing,” Walters wrote in a letter to the state Board of Education.

Walters is a high school history teacher and executive director of the pro-school-choice organization Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, as well as serving on the governor’s Cabinet.

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He was a leading voice against allowing transgender students to play the sport and use the restroom that matches their gender identity. Both practices are now banned in Oklahoma public schools.

An ardent supporter of HB 1775, Walters won the GOP superintendent nomination with a platform opposing “woke ideology.” He frequently took aim at teachers unions, calling them the source of “left-wing indoctrination.”

Walters' comments against Boismier are “problematic” and the cause of unneeded controversy, said Katherine Bishop, president of the state's largest teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association.

“Instead of wasting his time on creating a political spectacle, we ask that he spend more time resolving the real issues facing the students of Oklahoma, such as the growing educator shortage crisis and the broadening resource gaps created from underfunding our public schools who serve every child, not just some,” Bishop said in a statement.

Follow Nuria Martinez-Keel on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma teacher who opposed banned books, HB 1775 faces criticism