Devotional candles with photos of those killed during a New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans sit in front of a memorial site on Bourbon Street on Jan. 4, 2025. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
Does our state superintendent have a screw loose?
Has he become so addicted to the national media spotlight and his need for validation that he no longer cares who his remarks hurt or defame at home?
Or has he perhaps forgotten his lessons in Oklahoma and U.S. history and needs a remedial class?
Because those are the only explanations I can think of that would explain Ryan Walters’ latest, tone deaf and embarrassing 1-minute-and-19-second tirade that attempts to link schools and teachers unions to the New Year’s attack in New Orleans. The remarks also included outlandish fearmongering about school classrooms turning into “terrorist training camps.”
The entire escapade might have gone unremarked upon except that the state education agency Walters leads used taxpayer resources last week to highlight his video, and Walters received national publicity.
In New Orleans, authorities say a radicalized Army veteran, brandishing an ISIS flag, drove a Ford F-150 pickup down Bourbon Street in the early hours of Jan. 1, killing 14 and injuring dozens more before law enforcement killed him. The FBI has said it is investigating the incident as a terror attack.
That same day in Las Vegas, a soldier killed himself in a Tesla Cybertruck that then exploded in front of a Trump hotel, injuring bystanders. Investigators say the attacks are apparently unrelated.
Rather than using state resources to promote a video expressing sympathy, calling for unity, and correctly putting blame where it belongs, Walters decided to sow the seeds of dissent by bizarrely blaming schools and teachers unions. (For the record, not a single investigator has blamed schools, unions or educators for either incident.)
But that didn’t stop Walters from making remarks, including:
“We also have to take a look at how are these terrorists coming from people that live in America,” he said.
“You have schools that are teaching kids to hate their country, that this country is evil. You have the teachers’ unions pushing this on our kid(s).”
Walters wraps up by saying that’s why Oklahomans are getting back to basics to make sure that our kids love our country, understand American values and understand the role the Constitution, The Bible and Declaration of Independence play.
Because “we want patriots,” he said.
The remarks were infuriating, even coming from a man whose first two years in office have been marked — and marred — by ridiculous publicity stunts and statements designed to draw attention to himself by attempting to divide us and sow dissent at others’ expense.
But I didn’t think any elected official who represents Oklahomans could be that insensitive and tone deaf about acts of terrorism.
After all, they represent constituents who 30 years ago lived through the nation’s worst act of domestic terrorism.
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh – also a radicalized former Army soldier – detonated a bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people, including 19 children. Hundreds more were injured.
Pretty much everybody who lived in Oklahoma still remembers what they were doing at 9:02 a.m. that day. Some recall their classmates being pulled out of class so they could be privately told about the incident. Their parents worked inside the building.
Many Oklahomans know someone who died. Most know a first responder who responded to the war zone.
Today, few understand more acutely than Oklahomans how it feels to survive a terror attack and rebuild. Few enjoy watching vultures try to capitalize on others’ misfortune.
Walters has apparently missed that memo.
But I think perhaps what’s more egregious is that Walters is using the latest attacks to try to further divide us and stoke fear by spreading misinformation.
“Terrorist training camps” in schools?
That’s not a thing.
Purposely stoking hatred for our country?
I’ve never met a single teacher that does that.
But I fear someone is probably going to think Walters is preaching the Gospel truth.
And I worry that his continued irresponsible spread of misinformation is going to unintentionally bring someone or something bad down on our schools by some zealot convinced that they’re protecting “patriotism” by targeting imaginary foes.
In 2024, Education Week reported that there were 39 school shootings. Eighteen people were killed, including eight children, and 59 people were injured. That’s up from the year prior.
Our schools have a lot of needs – and they’re already targets. What they don’t need is a public official irresponsibly fanning the flames of hate toward educators and our children to feed his ambitions.
So here’s hoping our state superintendent can resolve to do a better job keeping his mouth shut in 2025.
And to the victims of both incidents, I’m truly sorry both for what happened to you and for our state superintendent’s hurtful antics.
His actions don’t represent the Oklahoma standard.
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This commentary was originally published by the Oklahoma Voice, part of the States Newsroom nonprofit news network. It’s supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.