Foundation demands education superintendent’s resignation

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) announced in a press release it was demanding the immediate resignation of Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, accusing him of advancing his personal religious beliefs and misusing his office.

FFRF accused Walters of “clear weaponization of the state’s education system” after what FFRF said was a suggestion by Walters to retaliate against Tulsa Public Schools by threatening their accreditation. Previously, the school district had prohibited a school board member from imposing a “sectarian religious prayer onto other people’s children,” according to the release.

“It is plain for Oklahomans to see that you are only concerned with advancing a Christian nationalist agenda that is antithetical to American values, rather than doing your job as state superintendent of public instruction,” FFRF Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker said in the release. “As you appear to have no interest in fulfilling your duties and have demonstrated again and again that you are manifestly unfit to serve in your current role, you should resign immediately.”

It is not the first rundown FFRF has had with the superintendent. According to the release, FFRF wrote a letter to Walters in May to “rebuke him over his call to ban 190 books and his asking for students to be taught from the Christian bible.” Last week, FFRF said they sent him a letter about Walters’ statements on Fox TV, saying that “in Oklahoma, we are ending state-sponsored atheism.” FFRF argued the U.S. Constitution was “godless” and the Declaration of Independence stated that authority was based on consent of the governed, not the Bible.