Ryan Walters gets emergency order to suspend license of former Western Heights teacher

The state Board of Education on Thursday approved an emergency order to suspend the teaching certificate of a former Western Heights Public Schools teacher after a report circulated on social media about the teacher's alleged efforts to meet with an underage boy.

The former teacher, Hao Jiang, has not been charged with a crime. The Western Heights Public Schools board of education accepted Jiang’s resignation without comment during a special meeting on Jan. 11.

Despite the lack of legal charges, state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters said he was comfortable with suspending Jiang’s license, pending a formal revocation hearing. The board, which had only four of its current six members attend the special meeting, voted unanimously to approve the proposal.

“When we see evidence, we’ve got to have the ability to collect it, because there are times where law enforcement may not charge an individual. But I just looked at a document of, I don’t know, over 100 pages worth of inappropriate text messages with a minor,” Walters said in response to a question about the suspension of a license of someone who has not been charged with a crime.

“This is the type of evidence that we can collect and if law enforcement is looking at the case, if law enforcement hasn’t charged yet, when we’re able to collect evidence like that, we can move very quickly," he said.

A spokesperson for the Western Heights district didn’t immediately return a message left Thursday afternoon by The Oklahoman. The Western Heights district in southwest Oklahoma City drew criticism from Walters last year over the hiring of a principal who performs as a drag queen, wearing makeup and a feminine outfit.

Walters to propose changes to rules involving teacher hiring

Without providing details or explanation, Walters said he would propose changes to rules that he believes will help keep sexual predators out of classrooms. One would clarify that “community standards” are part of the application for a teaching certificate, and the other would tie a district’s annual accreditation to its hiring practices.

Any such rule proposals would have to go through a public comment period and be approved by the state Board of Education, the Legislature and the governor before taking effect.

“We are not going to give sexual predators the slightest foothold in our classrooms,” Walters said. “What we have seen is radical leftists and the teachers’ unions turning our schools into Epstein Island. They have opened up our schools and allowed sexual predators to target our kids unchecked, unwatched and without accountability.”Torie Pennigton, the president of the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, called Walters' comment "absolutely false. Teachers' unions do not hire the teachers. Walters' frustration should not be directed towards us. Instead of finger-pointing, we should all focus on retaining and recruiting highly qualified teachers and supporting staff and students."

Without providing specific examples, Walters also said the Oklahoma State Department of Education was looking into what he called a “backlog” of potential license-revocation cases he said “were not prioritized” by his predecessor as state superintendent, Joy Hofmeister.

Walters said the state Education Department has removed 14 teaching certificates since he took office in January 2023 and has filed for 17 more to be removed, although a search of the department's website showed the state board has revoked only five licenses and suspended six others during that time. He specifically mentioned four cases that are in process, involving the Shawnee, Western Heights, Kingfisher and Ringling districts. All but the Western Heights cases involve former athletic coaches whose legal issues have been frequently in the news.

“You will see action on those districts,” Walters said. “What’s happened there is unbelievable. We’re not going to allow that to happen. We’re going to hold people to account.”

A search of the state Education Department website shows that during Hofmeister’s eight years as superintendent, there were nearly 200 license revocations, including 10 in one month in May 2022. A suspended license allows a teacher to be paid and hold a job, in theory, but a revoked license does not. Hofmeister also lobbied for the passing of State Question 711, which requires districts to report instances of bad actors to the state Education Department. She also was the first superintendent to do emergency license suspensions, such as the one that occurred Thursday.

What led to emergency action by state Board of Education?

On Jan. 5, in an announcement with no background or context, Walters said he would seek the "emergency suspension" of Jiang’s teaching certificate. A Western Heights spokesperson said the district had notified the state Education Department that day it had placed an unidentified employee on administrative leave on Dec. 17 and “swiftly took action to uphold the paramount importance of safety and security.”

The district said its administration "became aware of a video circulating on social media featuring an identified Western Heights employee facing serious allegations." In response, the spokesperson said, "the District immediately placed the employee on administrative leave pending a thorough investigation."

The district didn't confirm specifically at that time that the employee placed on administrative leave was Jiang, although school district records showed a person by that name was hired on July 10, 2023, to be an instructional coach at John Glenn Elementary School, and resigned last week.

The online post that led to the district’s action was included on a website called Oklahoma Predator Prevention (OPP). OPP, the website says, "works to protect the state’s children from sexual abuse and kidnapping by intercepting online predators and collecting evidence that is then turned over to law enforcement for investigation and prosecution." The video shows representatives from OPP confronting an Asian man at the man’s house and police coming to the house after being called.

The website NonDoc published an incident report from the Oklahoma City Police Department that was dated Dec. 17 that discussed what happened. Jiang’s name was not visible in the heavily redacted report.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters gets emergency order to suspend Oklahoma teacher's license