SPS superintendent's letter draws attention from State board

Oct. 27—A recent email from Stillwater Public Schools Superintendent Uwe Gordon became a central focus Thursday at the Oklahoma State Board of Education's regular monthly meeting.

According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education, parents within the Stillwater district complained about Gordon's letter believing it an attempt to circumvent rules meant to inform parents about sexual discussion. In its new administrative and emergency rules set forth in the September meeting, OSDE amended parental rights about how schools share information with parents and how sex changes in students' historical records are handled.

The rule as it stands now states that "no School district, and no employee of the district or its schools, shall encourage, coerce, or attempt to encourage or coerce a minor child to withhold information from the child's Parent(s) or guardian(s). A School district shall disclose to a child's Parent(s) or guardian(s) any information known to the School district or its employees regarding material changes reasonably expected to be important to Parent(s) regarding their child's health, social, or psychological development, including Identity information."

Amendments to the rule state that if a parent or guardian alleges a violation to state law regarding sex education and parental notice about the discussion of sexual topics, "the Parent or guardian shall provide a written complaint to the State Department of Education that summarizes the alleged violation, including the time, date, and location of the violation and the identity of any person involved. The complaint must also include a copy of any complaint to the School District and any response. (2) Within fourteen days of receiving a complaint, the Department shall notify the School district of the allegation and provide an opportunity for response."

Next steps include OSDE conducting an investigation and determining whether a violation has occurred. If OSDE concludes there has been a violation, the school district has 14 days to request a hearing before the Board.

The new emergency rule about students' historical records states that "school districts and local school sites are hereby prohibited from altering sex or gender designations in any prior year student records without authorization from the State Board of Education."

School districts are required "to promptly inform the State Board of Education of any pending litigation or any court order related to altering sex or gender designations in school records within their district."

Notices of compliance must be filed and provided to the Executive Secretary of the State Board within 14 calendar days of the school's district knowledge of litigation or Court order.

Letter to parents

In light of the new rules, Gordon sent a letter to parents Monday explaining SPS's updated policies, which the News Press obtained.

"School districts are not able to change sex/gender designation in student records without authorization from the State Board of Education. Families wishing to do so will have to go through a process with that entity," Gordon wrote. "In the event a student expresses to a school staff member information that is 'reasonably expected to be important to Parents,' that information will be conveyed to the parents/guardians by the site principal and that communication will be documented in student records."

Gordon listed specific situations which included situations such as students who are sexually active, have thoughts of transitioning to a gender other than what is indicated on their birth certificate, requests to change pronouns or other significant information.

Gordon continued by saying that SPS values "strong partnerships with families," and that the "staff is happy to engage in productive communication with parents/guardians that provide loving support to their children and to connect them to resources to help navigate complex issues."

"Sadly, sometimes parents, guardians, or other family members may react negatively, and in the worst cases, violently, to learning unexpected information about a child," Gordon wrote. "Students will be told that such information must be shared with their parents/guardians. If a student expresses that sharing such information might create an unsafe environment for them, our counselors will work towards protecting that child's physical safety, and may contact organizations that help families work through sensitive matters constructively."

Gordon said students 18 years of age will be treated confidentially and in accordance with federal law.

He also encouraged parents to visit SPS's Student Support page, where contact information for district wide and school site counselors, links to SPS Counseling, Health Services and Family Support Services sites can be found.

In addition, SPS recently offered a resource library, where a collection of other Stillwater area counselors can be found to help students with specific needs or who would prefer contacting providers outside of SPS.

At the Board meeting

During the OSDE Board meeting on Thursday, State Superintendent Ryan Walters said that parents from the SPS district had contacted his office with complaints about Gordon's letter.

"We've received several messages and complaints from parents in Stillwater about an email that was sent out by the Stillwater Superintendent that appears to be their attempt to circumvent this Board's rules around notifying parents about behavior going on with their children," Walters said at the meeting. "This will not be tolerated, and I will not stand for it. Parents have spoken loudly and very clear that they want to know what's going on in their children's education. They want a seat at the table, and they are the ultimate deciders.

"The fact that they would send out an email that would slam parents, undermine parents, and attempt to circumvent these rules is a great measure of concern, and I will always stand with parents. I know this Board has taken very deliberate action to ensure that parents' rights are protected, and we will not allow any rogue administrator to undermine these rules and we will take that on very directly."

The News Press reached out to OSDE for information about the emails and complaints the Board had received, but the information is not able to be released, said Dan Isett, director of communications for OSDE. But he said there were multiple complaints filed in the system regarding the email.

In a statement released Thursday, SPS Communications Director Barry Fuxa said the district was "somewhat confused as to how the message was interpreted in that way."

"Knowing these new rules have been met with some concern by citizens worried it would lead to schools 'outing' students, or releasing other sensitive information to parents that may not be receptive to such information, we included a statement about student safety in such situations," Fuxa stated in the letter. "That portion of the letter is in no way a criticism of parents or any reasonable parenting styles."

Fuxa said that SPS had heard from one parent who reacted negatively toward the email.

"The new rules are a radical departure to long-standing State and national practices of confidentiality in counseling students," Gordon said. "As we work to navigate these new rules and as we expressed in the recent communication to parents, guardians and staff, we will comply with OSDE's new rules, communicate openly with parents, serve all students and work to protect any student who reports an unsafe situation as we are required to do by law."

SPS Board of Education President Tim Riley said he had not received any feedback from any concerned parents regarding Gordon's email, nor had he received any feedback after the OSDE meeting.

"Anytime there are changes mandated from the State department, there are parents that agree with the changes," Riley said. "There are also parents that disagree with the changes. Parents should know that Stillwater Public Schools does, and has always complied with directives mandated from SDE. Parents should also be assured that we are focused on our mission to provide the best, safest and most productive learning environment for every student enrolled at SPS."

Riley also stated that "student success while at SPS, student outcomes post graduation and student experience are at the core of what our teachers, support staff and administration are laser focused on each and every day."

"Approximately 80 percent of our wonderful community voted in favor of our recent bond issue," he said. "That speaks volumes about how our community views the effort and care our entire staff pours into the students and families of SPS."

Some parents at SPS speak up

Tori Caswell attended school in Stillwater, and she now has three children in three public schools in the SPS district.

She is a Payne County chapter co-chair for Defense of Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit based out of New York whose goal is to bring together a bipartisan effort to push back against the "Christian Nationalist movement," according to its website. It advocates for an inclusive public education system.

"(This) is stage eight of the 10 stages of genocide," Caswell said. "(Walters) is listing and now targeting trans youth in Oklahoma. In addition, he's threatening (Gordon) and SPS. It's a disgrace what is happening there."

Caswell attended the Board meeting Thursday with Garrett Coulson of Oklahoma City and Stephanie Tharp from Piedmont, Oklahoma. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Coulson and Tharp, also with Defense of Democracy, gave a "full biology and history lesson," Caswell said.

Saralynn Boren said she was also at the meeting, sitting in the hallway. She is the Payne County chair for Defense of Democracy, and has two children who attend Richmond Elementary and one child who attends Stillwater Junior High School.

"I don't understand what about that email that Mr. Gordon sent out was concerning for (Walters)," Boren said. "I thought that the email was just informing parents of this new policy that the Board voted on last month, and about how they're going to follow it. It didn't seem to me like it was anything saying, 'Oh, we're not going to do this' ... I was definitely confused by his statement."

She said she wasn't sure if the part of the email that made Walters concerned was that Gordon mentioned making sure students have a safe space at home when administration informs parents about the significant information, but she said the email seemed to be mainly informing parents about SPS policies already in place and letting them know that SPS will abide by the new OSDE rules.

"I almost wonder if it was actually that these parents (who contacted the Board) were complaining about the policy, and maybe (the Board) is just misunderstanding their emails and thinking that it was a complaint about what Mr. Gordon said, when really it was just that was Mr. Gordon was just informing them about the State Board's new policy," she said.