Ryan Walters threatens to lower Edmond schools accreditation over books: Readers speak out

We asked readers whether the issue of Edmond Public Schools refusing to allow the Oklahoma State Board of Education to determine its library books should be a criteria to lower a school district's accreditation.

Edmond Public Schools has asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to determine whether the state Board of Education or local elected school board has the authority to establish policies concerning books in the district's libraries.

The lawsuit comes after the Oklahoma State Department of Education threatened to lower Edmond's accreditation after finding “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls and “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini among books in the school district's libraries.

Here are comments from readers:

● As former chair of the Sequoyah Children’s Book Award Committee, I have a simple question for Mr. Walters: Have you read either book, "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls or "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini?

What about your secret library committee? Have they read either book?

The answers to these questions would be very revealing of your qualified criticisms of said titles.

There is a process at every school that I know of for withdrawing a purchased title from a school library. Trust the local schools to make the right decisions instead of trying to censor what students read/think.

― Jolene Singleterry, Chickasha

● Book selection criteria of a school district should not be a criteria for state accreditation.  The issue for the state should be only that a book selection criteria policy has been adopted.

— Harold J. Pumford, Prague

● We totally support EPS and think this issue is not tied to accreditation in any way. Edmond has some of the best schools in the state based on outcomes. The Department of Education is being run by a dictator and is way overstepping his position. We think he needs to be resign or be impeached.

— Sue Putman, Edmond

● I retired in May after teaching band for 33 years. I believe that the control should be with the local district. The state should produce rules, but the local district should be in charge.  The state doesn't know the situation in each building. Furthermore, I feel the state is over reaching in most issues, for example, social emotional learning and diversity issues.

― Janette Garton, Lawton

● The Edmond lawsuit concerning who has the authority to establish what books are appropriate for our children is perplexing. The two books which are the basis for the lawsuit are “The Kite Runner” and ”The Glass Castle.” These books are available in the Edmond schools. Both books are in the top 20 for the most banned and challenged books.

Censorship has existed throughout the world, and in most cases has had negative outcomes. However, during the formative years of children, the parents have the key role in shaping their children’s values and beliefs.

A legislative remedy could be considered. The lawmakers would determine what books may be inappropriate for our public schools and establish a process whereby if a student wishes to check out the book it would require the parent’s permission. This process would allow the parents input plus allow the public schools autonomy.

― Steve and Donna Satterwhite, Midwest City

● Does he really think that book banning is the issue in schools? Not guns that actually kill kids? Clutching his pearls using Hugh Hefner as a reference? Calling the Teachers Union a terrorists organization? Extreme tactics like his are unhealthy for all Oklahomans.

He needs to be ousted sooner, than later.

— Jan Dixon, Noble

● The school should have the right choose the books state school superintendent needs to go 37 years with OKC public schools and never seen a mess like we have now with this glory hound.

― Bobbie Heath

● Efforts by Walters et al to overrule the work of local school boards is totally inappropriate. Ryan speaks of preventing indoctrination, but his action is to assure indoctrination for the entire state. Local school boards, if supported by professional librarians, should have the authority to do their jobs and educate students. Removing books like “Kite Runner” and “Glass Castle” or classics like “Huckleberry Finn” or “To Kill a Mockingbird” would be terrible.

The State Education Department should not have the authority to remove library books selected by local librarians.

— Mike Smolen, Stillwater

● The Oklahoma Board of Education and Ryan Walters have gone beyond the pale with banning books. Books are a form of free speech and should be allowed to be read by all. If a parent dislikes a book after reviewing it for themselves, then they could request that their student not be allowed to read it. I don't believe it is the school board's place to remove books of any kind from libraries. It is certainly NOT their job to be punitive with accreditation if a school doesn't find it necessary to remove books banned by them. Books are a necessary part of education, all books, not just those that are acceptable to the religious right. The Bible should be banned by their definition….sex, violence, infidelity and murder.

― jlatsc, Oklahoma City

● No. Educators in a school district know their constituents better than other people. In the same way, that our governor and our education secretary think rules should be left up the states, these rules should be left up to the local school district. Also, it’s a total violation of First Amendment rights. I don’t understand why this is even an issue.

― Wayne Harris-Wyrick, Oklahoma City

● Librarians are trained to understand that every book may not be appropriate to every reader, and that every reader may not be the audience for every book, and that’s okay. They know how to help each reader discover books for their own enjoyment or enlightenment. Librarians respect the fact that parents may not want their own children to read certain books, and encourage parents to dialogue with their own children about that fact. Ryan Walters possesses none of these credentials, and clearly does not understand the Oklahoma Statutes’ definition of pornography. Instead, he threatens school accreditations if decisions do not align with his beliefs. His actions are entirely inappropriate.

― Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins, Oklahoma City

● Our public schools have certified teachers and librarians who are very qualified to select books for their classrooms/school. Oklahoma Public Schools SHOULD NOT HAVE THEIR DISTRICT ACCREDITATION LOWERED BECAUSE OF BOOK SELECTION!!! The Oklahoma Superintendent of Education is using the power of Accreditation of Oklahoma State Board of Education to politicize his personal and/or political views through threats of this VERY serious matter! This should NOT be allowed! (I taught in Oklahoma Public Schools for 30+ years and served several terms on the Chickasha Public Library Board as member and Chair.)

― Dolores Smith, Chickasha

● Sure, if schools want to have books of any sexual nature in their library they should be punished. Why should our government provide any type of sex related books to children? Students all have cell phones. Students can go home and read all the porn-ish related books they want. Local control of school boards is a joke. Unions & local bureaucracy (Supt & Principals) control schools, not parents. Parents have no power in their schools. Move the elections to the same as other elections and you might see a more democratic turnout. Perhaps even some push back against the 'system'. Maybe Hugh Hefner or Larry Flynt wrote a book? Put that in the HS library, 'Its for the kids!' They can watch the movie Caligula in Social Studies as well.

― Jason Butcher, Midwest City

● I think each school district has a board for a reason. The members are elected by the parents of the students. The argument that they aren’t listening to the parents is invalid because the parents elected the local board. I also think holding accreditation status over a district’s head because they disagree and speak out against Walters is childish and immature.

― Bobbi Atkinson, Elk City

● Absolutely NOT.

― Chris Rudnicki, Yukon

● No, this shouldn’t lower a district’s accreditation. Kudos to Edmond Public Schools for challenging policies that impede it from educating students. There are terrible things in this world. War, corruption, abuse, neglect, rape. Some students have already experienced things by the time they reach high school. For those who haven’t, removing books that cover difficult subjects won’t protect them. It would only lead to them graduating and entering the adult world ignorant of and ill equipped to combat the true evil in the world. Imagine if those in power would spend as much energy towards preventing terrible things from actually happening in the first place as they do towards trying to interfere with the work of competent educators. Those two books are perfectly reasonable for high schoolers to read.

― Kerry Farrell, Oklahoma City

● Absolutely not! It is ironic that Walters purports to be all about parental control regarding their child’s education, i.e. school choice, yet demands that the OK State Department of Education have punitive controls over what should be local decision making and policy implementation. This is a dangerous road toward doing away with local school boards.

― Debra Evans, Norman

● As a school librarian for 28 years, we had a written policy about the selection of books and what is required to remove a book from the library. The policy is usually approved by the school board. Any parent can object to a book in the school, after they have read the entire book. We had a form the person (parent) would fill out what was objectionable. We had a committee to read the parents complaint and then decide whether to remove the offending book.

― Donna Munger, Harrah

● The Edmond School District is correct. Local control by the parents and elected school board officials must prevail. The present state superintendent of schools is just a tool of the American Legislative Exchange Council, another out-of-state extreme right-wing group funded by the notorious Koch Brothers. Their national goal is to destroy public schools nationally.

― Glenn Hightower, Oklahoma City

● The decision to remove a book from a public-school library is a one that ultimately should be made by the district's elected officials, the Board of Education. In fact, any concern about a school can be shared with the Board as well as other appropriate school personnel, usually beginning at the lowest level and working up if necessary. District control is a major feature of American public schools and should not be ignored. Tying accreditation to one issue is generally inappropriate because accreditation is based on many different items, not just one. Instead of trying to punish school districts, the Oklahoma State Board of Education should be focused on working collaboratively and in a non-punitive manner with our state's schools to improve education with research-based and educationally sound improvement methods.

― Brenda Lyons, Edmond

● First and always, parents should be in control of what their kids read. If there are questionable books at school, remove them. If a parent is offended by this, they can go right to the Library or buy the book they want their child to read. Why in the world would a few books, say it's 20, get to this point ? Remove them based on a set up criteria by the school system. Remove the controversial books and if you feel your child would learn a life lesson by reading the book, go get the book and let them read it at home. Or, are we having an argument for the sake of the argument? Are there Bibles in the Library? Are there Bible study books in the school library? Are there white supremist books, books on rape, books on sex trafficking, books on incest? Common sense is if their is questionable contact on rape, child abuse, sex, then let these topics remain in the home for the parents to address if they feel so compelled to do so. Why is this such an issue? Sound like one side is for protection and the other is for transparency. Maybe it's over protection? Is that a bad thing? If so, introduce it in your private home vs public schools where the one single wrong person (none of us knows who this might be) reads the book and it affects them in a way that at their age they may not be mature enough to read. We are not the compass for maturity and we are not the compass on mental capability to handle certain topics based on what this person is living. There are many reason a parent may not be for their child reading certain books. Who are we to force this? If there is a question of harm, why are we so bent on forcing the issue? The books are out there in the world. If you are offended, go buy the book and be at peace. These books were not in my library growing up and I was just fine not reading them. Common sense tells you, if you feel so strong about your child reading a book, go buy the book or go to the public library and get the book and let your child read it. Are we arguing to argue? I think God has the right to be in our schools, but is this the case? No. We all have strong feelings on what our children should have the right to be exposed to and I do have a Bible at home and I do introduce my child to God.

― Kari Wasemiller, Edmond

● Absolutely not. This is typical Walters, heavy-handed and closed-minded. I’ve read both books after my son’s read them in school and recommended them to me. Neither were anywhere near pornographic.

― Carl Lindquist, Edmond

● Absolutely not! I doubt that Walters or his female library crony has even read "Kite Runner!" If he had he would understand what a fool he has made of himself! I taught Honors Am. History for 40+ years in Putnam City and encouraged my students to read it. YEAH edmond for having the guts to take on Little Napoléon! This is all based on power plays of our country, etc. Should be up to locals not an elected wanna be!

― Sue Wylie, Oklahoma City

● Absolutely not. Local elected school boards should make the decision. Lowering or losing accreditation because of this issue by Walters is clearly a vindictive action. Accreditation should be directed toward issues of education quality only.

― Kandi Pate, Arcadia

● Not at ALL! School libraries should provide students the opportunity to extend their horizons beyond their own personal lives! Among SO many more, these two books are both excellent in doing so! Keep Ryan Walters and his power hungry fingers OUT!!

― Sharon Sutherlin, Lawton

More: Readers reacted to a question of whether cellphones should be banned on school campuses.

● Absolutely NOT

― Connie Taylor, Oklahoma City

● Gov. Kevin Stitt and Education Sec. Ryan Walters are overreaching when they try to control local school board decisions by banning books they may not like. Edmond Public Schools is right to push back and should not have their accreditation lowered. Edmond parents have not used an existing process to complain about these two targeted books. Stitt and Walters remain focused on wedge issues to pander to a small, noisy segment of their voters who probably don't read any books. Ever. The real problem with education in Oklahoma is that our state ranks 48th in the U.S., according to US News and World Report and other national surveys. That's what Stitt, Walters and Republicans who control the state House, Senate and governor's office have failed to address for far too long. Our kids should be reading more books. Instead, they are not getting an education equal to students in other higher ranking states because self-serving Republicans deliberately focus on the wrong priorities.

― Lauren Allison Carter, Yukon

● No! He is weaponizing the SDE by threatening accreditation for every district that questions his rules and whims. The problem is you have someone running the SDE that has never walked one foot as a local administrator and it shows.

― Jeff Dudley, Bixby

● No, it should not be an issue used to lower a district's accreditation. Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma Department of Education are acting like they are the dictator of everything but they're not. Which books are on the school shelves should be left up to the local school districts to oversee their district as the school and the parents want it to be. We DO NOT HAVE PORNOGRAPHY in our schools. Walters doesn't tell the truth. He tells lies because it gets him free time on T. V. when he states outrageous lies. I'm glad he's being sued. Maybe he'll stop with the lies. Maybe he'll start focusing on his job and figuring out how to start running various state and federal programs with some competence so he's not trying to claw back money from poor teachers for his department's inability to administer their programs effectively and within the requirements of the law.

― Linda Morgan, Oklahoma City

● No it should not be. Local School Board policies should be followed on the appropriateness of materials in Edmond School libraries.

― Tim Miller, Clinton

● Absolutely not. Although parents should have a say in their children's lives, most parents are NOT reading specialists, literary experts, or childhood development professionals. THOSE are the folks who should be guiding our students' literary training, not individual, random parents (or social media influencers, for that matter). A library's decision to carry such important literary works like "The Glass Castle" and "The Kite Runner" only speaks to what a good job that library is doing in providing our students with exceptional, thought-provoking reading material - not whether they should be pawns in an accreditation war being waged for political theater.

― Tara Hudson, Choctaw

● Superintendent Walters confuses his role as one who was elected to develops state public education policy in contrast to a czar who threatens school officials who do not do his bidding. The patrons of the Edmond Public Schools have apparently been satisfied with, and have confidence in, the lawfully adopted library resources review policy implemented by the district’s Board. It seems clear that Superintendent Walters has elected to implement his own personal book-review policy in the absence of one meeting legislative standards. If Mr. Walters wants to amend the state school accrediting standards to become tools for punishing students and schools, I think he faces an uphill struggle.

― Howard Kuchta, Lawton

● A bully doesn't stop bullying until someone is brave enough to fight him — and wins. For that reason, I've never been so proud to have my kids attend Edmond Public Schools as I was when I learned about the district's lawsuit against Ryan Walters. My oldest daughter read both books as part of her high school curriculum. Perhaps to Mr. Walters' chagrin, somehow that daughter survived the ordeal without permanent damage. When I told her about his attempt to ban "The Glass Castle," her response was, "It's literally about growing up homeless." I haven't invested the time to read either book, and I'll bet Mr. Walters hasn't, either. But only one of us is wise enough to realize we shouldn't judge a book unless we've read it ourselves.

― Tony Thornton, Edmond

● Every Oklahoman should rebel against anything Ryan Walters is promoting.

― Bobby Toma, Norman

● Of course not. Ryan Walters is out of control with the politicization of his department. Inventing issues that aren't there to rile up people. All to the detriment of public schools.

― Mark Webster, Tulsa

● Absolutely NOT!

― Shawnessy Enterline

● Absolutely not! This should not even be an issue! Ryan Walters obviously has no idea what pornography is or he would not be every where making a fool out of himself spewing such nonsense and threatening our schools. This reminds me of the movie Footloose from back in 1984 where there were scenes of radical townspeople burning books and calling them pornography. Also ironic that the movie was based on an actual town in Oklahoma. It would be nice to be moving forward in this state instead of backward. It's pretty embarrassing being an Oklahoman right now thanks to this and other ridiculous things that Mr. Walters has said and done.

― Dawn Dries, Oklahoma City

● No. It's not the role of government to regulate what people can read. Parents can regulate what their children read and adults can determine for themselves what books and other material they want to read. Banning books is one of the tactics dictators have used to eliminate political, social, and other discourse that doesn't conform to their way of thinking. Furthermore, allowing politicians to make those decisions arbitrarily means the standards could change with every new election or administration.

― William Shaw, Oklahoma City

● No. First!, what ever happened to local decision making and governece. My observation has been accreditation is far to easily exercised and too often over cultural and religious issues disguised as educational advantages

― Carl Mecke, Norman

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Should Ryan Walters' group be the judge of library books? Readers react