Ryan Walters Sets New Rules for Public Comments Ahead of Thursday’s Council Meeting

Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters said Wednesday it is changing the rules about public comment at Oklahoma State Board of Education meetings.

Interest in the meeting, relatively low in previous years, has skyrocketed since Walters’ election in 2022.

Walters, a Republican, has had a controversial year and a half in office, criticizing school districts across the state for their academic performance, accusing some of them of going too far in teaching about diversity, equity and inclusion, and blaming others for failing to do so. . keeping books with what he considers inappropriate content out of his libraries.

The council’s monthly meetings have been held in a room too small to accommodate those wishing to attend, and members of the media are required to RSVP to secure a seat. Requests to change the meeting location were ignored and queues often formed hours before meetings began. Since November, public comments have been limited to the first 10 people who put their names on a sign-up sheet.

Ryan Walters’ critics often arrive the night before board meetings

In recent months, Walters’ critics began arriving the night before the meeting, well before his supporters, and the critics dominated that part of the meeting. In April, Walters moved public comments to near the end of the meeting, essentially forcing those who signed up to speak to sit through hours of political presentations and discussions.

Now Walters has gone a step further, inserting a special notice into the May Wednesday meeting agenda which reads: “Speakers for public comment will be chosen at random and in limited numbers. Unless necessary for health, child care, or ADA purposes, backpacks, purses, and similar items are not permitted in the State Department of Education building for Council meetings.”

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In a separate part of the agenda is a boilerplate statement that is often ignored and has not been enforced in recent times: “For all public comments, at the sole discretion of the Chairman of the Board, the deadline may be extended. Additionally, the Chairman of the Board may interrupt and/or terminate any presentation during public comment… The Chairman of the Board reserves and retains the right to interrupt, terminate or postpone public comments as necessary to effect management of the public meeting.”

One organization that frequently participates in council meetings is the Human Rights Campaign.

Cathryn Oakley, the group’s senior director of legal policy, said the action was “intimidation.”

“Ryan Walters has promised to never back down – so why is he scrapping the usual procedure for public comment at State Board of Education meetings and instead manually selecting the public testimony he wants to hear?” Oakley asked.

“His supposed commitment to transparency is as fragile as his courage — because bullies hate being held accountable. Walters is once again demonstrating his abject failure to meet the needs of Oklahoma students and is once again putting his own ego and political ambition ahead of basic principles to do his job, Walters needs to explain to Oklahomans why he doesn’t believes you need to listen to their concerns.”

Dan Isett, Walters’ chief spokesman, said the changes were made to “ensure public accessibility.” He provided a statement from Walters saying, “For months, we have seen organized activists attempt to monopolize public access to our open meetings. This ends today.”

More: Why a Moore Student Wants an Order of Protection Against State Superintendent Ryan Walters

Isett said that so that everyone has an “equal opportunity to have their voices heard,” a public comment sign-up sheet would be made at 8:15 a.m. on meeting days and at 9:25 a.m. — five minutes before the scheduled start of the meeting. . He said no limit would be placed on the number of people who could sign up, and a computer “randomizer” would choose 10 people from the list to speak.

The statement also noted that the ban on backpacks, purses and similar items was “to help ensure the safety of everyone present.” It is unclear what security problems have occurred at board meetings in recent months, as several Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers who provide security at meetings have not inspected backpacks carried by members of the media for at least the past eight months.

However, at the board meeting in April, six patrol officers did not arrest, handcuff and remove from the room an Oklahoma City woman, Audra Beasley, leaving audience members to care for her children. She refused to leave the podium after her speaking time had elapsed. Beasley, who has long advocated for the installation of adult changing tables in public buildings, was not violent but banged a small plastic folding table on the glass-covered tray table while addressing the council.

A spokesman for the Oklahoma attorney general’s office said it appeared the restrictions on Walters’ meetings were “permitted by law” because the board meetings did not require public comment. Oklahoma State University professor Joey Senat, an expert on media law and open government, said it appeared the rules were consistent with the spirit of “open meetings” since speakers would be chosen at random and not hand-picked. by the council or agency. He added, however, that not holding meetings in a room large enough to accommodate those who wish to participate is contrary to that spirit.

This article originally appeared in the Oklahoman: Ryan Walters Establishes New Public Comment Rules for Board of Education Meetings