{"id":34170,"date":"2021-07-12T16:57:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T21:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34170"},"modified":"2021-07-12T16:57:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T21:57:17","slug":"critical-race-theory-debate-school-district-takeover-dominate-oklahoma-state-board-of-education-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/07\/12\/critical-race-theory-debate-school-district-takeover-dominate-oklahoma-state-board-of-education-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical race theory debate, school district takeover dominate Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Monday morning and into the afternoon, Oklahoma\u2019s State Board of Education weighed a number of big topics in one of its last meetings before the start of the school year in August.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The board approved new rules around House Bill 1775, which dictates that students should not be made to feel uncomfortable based on their identity. The board also took over the administration of Western Heights Public Schools.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The board entertained more than 40 minutes of public comment. Most were from a predominantly white crowd calling on the state to ban critical race theory from the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>House Bill 1775<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HB 1775 and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sde.ok.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/files\/HB%201775%20Emergency%20Rules.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rules<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the board passed Monday does not ban critical race theory. Instead it specifically bans teaching any of the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An individual\u2019s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, the bill\u2019s co-author said the board\u2019s rules as passed are in compliance with the intent and spirit of the law.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOverall, I\u2019m pleased with the process and happy we got this on the books so schools know what they\u2019re going to be doing when they come back to class,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">West said he does not want teachers to fear discussing difficult topics and he hopes robust discussions continue in the state\u2019s classrooms.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That echoes State Superintendent for Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister. During the meeting she said she wants teachers to continue to stick to state standards that include difficult topics like the Tulsa Race Massacre.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe must teach the good, the bad, the ugly,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rules set up a grievance procedure for parents or students to make complaints.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rules are emergency rules. So, they must be re-approved through a lengthy process that will include public comment in the future.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, a school district could be given an accreditation deficiency for not complying with the law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Western Heights state takeover<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About 80 schools were given accreditation with deficiencies Monday, and most of those were issues related to tornado drills or financial reporting, state education department officials said. Three schools were given accreditation with probation.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of those districts was Western Heights.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, the board of education voted to take over the district and appoint an interim superintendent. Now, all Western Heights matters will come before the state as it forms an improvement plan.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State Department of Education officials accuse Western Heights leaders of financial reporting violations, creating safety problems and a culture of administrative bullying that led to the loss of more than 100 employees and even more students over the course of two years.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last month the board of education suspended the license of superintendent Mannix Barnes and put the district on probation. But the local school board ignored that move, and gave Barnes a raise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, the state board has voted to take over administration of the school, and members said law enforcement would become involved if district leaders refuse to step aside.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday morning and into the afternoon, Oklahoma\u2019s State Board of Education weighed a number of big topics in one of its last meetings before the start of the school year in August.The board approved new rules around House Bill 1775, which dictates that students should not be made to feel uncomfortable based on their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":34171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34172,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34170\/revisions\/34172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}