Oklahoma Board Of Education Approves New Rules Concerning 'Pornographic' Books

The Oklahoma State Board of Education approved a set of rules that would change the accreditation of school districts if they have library books that are deemed pornographic or sexualized.

Board members unanimously approved the rules during their meeting Thursday afternoon.

During the meeting, State Superintendent Ryan Walters presented slides showing the pages from several books, including "Gender Queer," "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human," "Flamer," and "Lawn Boy."

"Gender Queer" and "Let's Talk About It" contained drawings of people engaging in sex acts while "Flamer" featured a page with a sexual innuendo. "Lawn Boy" contained a paragraph discussing a sex act.

"This is an attack not only on your children. It's an attack on your family, on the values of this country, and the values of this state," Walters said during his presentation. 

The rules approved by the State Board of Education Thursday would require school districts to have written policies on the criteria for the evaluation and selection of books. Districts must also have written policies for reviewing whether books in school libraries are age-appropriate, as well as written policies for receiving and responding to complaints regarding books in the district.

On Oct. 1 of each year, school districts would also have to submit complete lists of their library books and library materials to the State Department of Education. Alternatively, they can post the complete list online, the rules stated.

Furthermore, should there be violations, parents would be able to submit written complaints to the State Department of Education, according to the rule. Within 14 days of receiving the complaint, the Department of Education would notify the school district in question. If the Department of Education finds that a violation occurred or may have occurred, the school district would have two weeks to request a hearing before the State Board of Education, which would review the complaint.

Should the Board of Education decide that "willful noncompliance" took place, the Board would change the accreditation status of the school district to either accredited with warning or accredited with probation, the rule said. 

If the Board finds that "negligent or reckless noncompliance" occurred, it would order the district to comply "within a reasonable timeframe." Otherwise, the district's accreditation would be changed.

During previous public hearings on this issue, people who were for and against the rules spoke out.

“These rules are an overreach by Superintendent Walters,” said Michelle McCain, a library media specialist. “I can assure you first and foremost that students are not coming to the library to look for pornography. They have much easier ways to access this material with even the most protective and diligent of parents."

“The rule change does not stop parents from getting this content and providing it to their child," said a woman who supported the rules. "What it does is recognize that we have a duty as public officials to protect all children and to allow parents to decide what is appropriate for their individual children."

News 9 asked Walters on Thursday how prevalent were the books deemed as pornographic or sexualized.

"I think if it's in one school library, if it's in one classroom, it's too much," said Walters. "So we get examples of this on a regular basis and this is where we're trying to even formalize and systematize all the input we're getting cause we're getting them from all sorts of different channels. So we're trying to direct people to the email address that we've set up so we can see. But what I'm telling you is we're getting this on a weekly basis of examples of those type of books. I just rolled out a few that we can pick fairly quickly. So it's hard to tell. But one is too many."

Although the rules were unanimously approved by the State Board of Education on Thursday, Walters said they must go through the Legislature's Rules Committee before they can reach Gov. Kevin Stitt.

"I'm very optimistic," said Walters. "I don't know how anybody can look at the images we saw (Thursday) and hear the stories from parents about being ignored and not being included in their kids' education and think that these rules aren't appropriate. So I am very confident these will make it to the governor's desk.”