parents' citizenship
Protestors stand outside the Oliver Hodge Department of Education building during the Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, State Board of Education meeting to protest State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters' recent remarks on immigration. (Sasha Ndisabiye)

Following public outrage over his proposed administrative rule requiring public schools to report the number of enrolled undocumented students, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters specified the agency will be seeking documentation proving both students’ citizenship and their parents’ citizenship after Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting.

“We are asking for documentation on both, yes, the child and the parent,” Walters said to reporters after the meeting. “We want information on who is in the country illegally or not. So that includes the family that’s supplying enrollment.”

For the first OSBE meeting of the new year, Walters set the stage for his 2025 education policies, outlining numerous controversial administrative rules while scores of protesters gathered outside to contest his recent remarks on students’ citizenship status. After a lengthy discussion, board members eventually approved each of the rules Walters and the department proposed in December with one revision.

With the board meeting scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., protesters toting signs and draped in Mexican flags and traditional clothing began filling the front entrance and grass lawn outside the Oklahoma State Department of Education building.

Even though a majority of individuals were protesting against Walters’ recent propositions, some people appeared to be in support of Walters, many of whom displayed American flags and “Trump 2024” campaign merchandise.

OSDE announced the 2025 proposed administrative rule changes Dec. 16, sparking both outrage and support, along with what Walters referred to as “gaslighting” and “lies” by the media.

“I wanted to start off by being crystal clear: Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that. It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools,” Walters said during the meeting. “We want to make sure that all that information is gathered so that we can make decisions on where resources go, where personnel goes, and we can continue to make sure that Oklahoma is leading the country in education.”

The language Walters used in his statement suggests the state agency is looking into the citizenship status of not only the child seeking enrollment, but the child’s parents’ citizenship status as well, differing from the proposed rules published to the department’s website.

“In order to assess statewide and local educational needs, including without limitation, student needs, language and cultural barriers, current and future needs for English as a Second Language (‘ESL’) teachers, tutors and tutoring programs, current and future transportation needs, programs, and anticipated future funding needs, a parent or a legal guardian of a child, or an emancipated minor, shall provide proof of United States (‘U.S.’) citizenship at the time of enrollment,” the rule says as written on the department’s website.

The rule further states school districts shall record instances when parents or guardians cannot provide documentation proving the citizenship status “of the student.” The proposed rule does not say school districts should record the parents’ citizenship status. Instead, the rule says, “the school district shall submit only information of the total number of students that lack of documentation” to the department.

Walters attempted to clarify the rule to reporters after the meeting.

“We are going to the parents to get information on their children,” Walters said. “It’s laid out in that rule, and we will continue to walk through that as it goes to the Legislature now, but we want information on every student in the schools, their parents, as they enroll in school.”

Walters had initially decided to speak to reporters after the meeting to address a funding freeze announced by President Donald Trump causing confusion and panic nationwide. Walters said he was at the time unsure how the funding freeze would affect education in Oklahoma. Minutes before it was set to go into effect, a federal judge ordered a temporary stay on the freeze until Feb. 3.

OSBE approves proposed rule changes

Board of Education
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters listened to board member concerns on proposed rule changes during a Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Sasha Ndisabiye)

The proposed rule changes were up for public comment through Jan. 21 to allow Oklahoma residents to provide feedback and voice grievances before the changes were up for approval by the board. Walters said “some tweaks were made” following last week’s public comments hearing and subsequently addressed the rule changes in question.

Aside from the now-approved immigration status policy, Walters voiced excitement regarding a rule allowing the Classic Learning Test as an option for state testing and a new requirement for teachers to pass the U.S. naturalization test.

“We’ve also included here, as part of teacher certification, that all of our teachers will be required to take the U.S. naturalization test to ensure that they understand the basics of America, American history, American government and civics,” Walters said. “What this does is ensures that every one of our teachers also meets the same requirement as every citizen in this country.”

In most cases, the U.S. naturalization test is an exam given to those seeking to become a U.S. citizen. As of 2021, students in the state must also pass the exam to graduate high school.

Walters also highlighted a rule requiring schools to report any donations exceeding $18,000.

“If you all remember, about a year or so ago, we found out that a school had entered into an agreement with an organization that was attached to the CCP, and we didn’t want Communist China getting into our schools and beginning influencing the information that our kids were getting,” Walters said. “We think is very important for Oklahomans to know when schools get these donations, where the donations come from. Are there strings attached to those donations? It also helps us when we’re making decisions around resources.”

Walters also pushed new policies promoting patriotism, following an incident at Edmond North High School where a school district forced a student to remove an American flag from the student’s truck.

“We absolutely want our kids to be proud to be an American,” Walters said. “We’re now requiring districts to protect those rights. And so I think it’s of the utmost importance we continue to emphasize exceptionalism (and) American patriotism of our schools. I believe that that’s absolutely necessary after seeing some rogue districts take those positions.”

To conclude his remarks, Walters emphasized two rule changes on student safety and health.

Walters has been an advocate for removing teachers, administrators and any personnel suspected of misconduct or being involved in inappropriate relationships with students.

“We also want to continue to make sure that our kids are safe, and any bad actors there will be removed from the school administration entirely,” Walters said. “We want to do this to be sure to prevent what we’ve seen with some of these teachers and coaches, where there’s an incident, and they go on to another school or another district. This will ensure us the ability that once these rules are broken, that individual will not be around kids in our schools again.”

Walters also addressed school meals Tuesday. In both his personal and professional capacity, Walters has been an adamant supporter of the Trump administration, including those Trump is appointing to his Cabinet. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee to become the U.S. secretary of health and human services, has pushed to remove processed foods and dyes from cafeterias.

“We’re going to be a leader in making America healthy again,” Walters said. “We have already begun to work with our child nutrition team, and we’ll be giving information in districts that we will be complying and working very closely with RFK Jr. and his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ initiative.”

Although Walters spoke about the rules the board “[received] the most feedback on,” he did not mention the complete revocation of the civil rights subchapter, which stated commitment to including “cultural awareness and sensitivity for a school age population which reflects diverse backgrounds, races, cultures and attitudes” in education.

Following discussion, the board moved to approve the proposed administrative rules. The rules will now be sent to the Legislature for its approval.

Board suspends nearly a dozen teacher certifications

Toward the end of the meeting, board members entered into executive session to discuss and take action on over a dozen teacher certifications. Board members suspended the teacher certificates and sent applications to revoke the certificates of 11 teachers:

  • John King, a Sperry Public Schools teacher and coach;
  • Robert Park, a Sperry Public Schools teacher and coach who has been accused — along with another unnamed Sperry coach, according to Tulsa’s 2 News — of covering up a sexual assault incident between students in a locker room in October;
  • Richard Akin, the former principal of Sperry High School;
  • Michael Briglin, a former Putnam City Public Schools teacher who was arrested for alleged domestic abuse in 2023. Although a criminal probable cause affidavit was filed in Oklahoma County District Court, no charges appear to have been brought against him;
  • Gerald Pruitt, a former Altus Public Schools teacher who is facing a felony child abuse charge after he allegedly slapped and threw to the ground a 5-year-old;
  • Billy Schuster, a former Norman Public Schools teacher who was arrested by Edmond police in August and charged with numerous counts of distributing child pornography;
  • Rocky Flint, a former Flower Mound teacher who is being charged with assault and battery on a student;
  • Susan Hartman, an Ardmore Public Schools teacher charged with child abuse after allegedly abusing a developmentally disabled 7-year-old at the elementary school where she taught;
  • Candace Western, a Moore Public Schools teacher who resigned after allegedly bringing a registered sex offender to the elementary school where she worked;
  • Stephanie Stehl, a Collinsville Public Schools teacher who resigned in November; and
  • Tony West.

The board also accepted voluntary certificate surrenders from:

  • Jennifer Enyart, who previously taught at Wyandotte Public Schools;
  • J. Trent Gibson; and
  • Suzanne Parker, who died at the age of 81 in December. Parker taught at the Westminster School in Oklahoma City for 21 years, according to her obituary.

Enyart — along with her husband Keith — is accused of abusing her adopted disabled child, according to Fox 23, and has been indicted in U.S. District Court with one count of child neglect and one count of assault and battery with the use of a deadly weapon. During last month’s meeting, the board took action on two months’ worth of teacher certifications, including that of Enyart, whose certification the board applied to revoke.

On Tuesday, the board voted to dismiss their prior application in order to accept the voluntarily surrender of Enyart’s certification.

After executive session, board member Katie Quebedeaux moved to send the application to revoke former Elk City Public Schools teacher Rick Dillinger to a hearing officer for further review. Dillinger is accused of embezzlement.

The board also announced their final determination “to adopt the hearing officer’s proposed findings of fact” regarding the certification of Russell Fincher — a Tuskahoma resident and former high school history teacher who pleaded guilty to one count of selling ammunition to prohibited persons in May 2024.

On Nov. 19, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma published a press release stating “Fincher knowingly sold 60 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition to an individual he had reason to believe was a felon” in May 2023, and “unlawfully engaged in the business of dealing in firearms without a license between February 2021 and June 2023.”

Also during the meeting, the OSDE Accreditation Standards Division presented an update on Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School and Deborah Brown Community School, two Tulsa-based charter schools that were put on probation in July 2023. The Accreditation Standards Division made no recommendation to upgrade the schools’ status, but said both institutions were improving and would be reevaluated in for the next academic year.

Watch Ryan Walters’ post-meeting remarks

  • Sasha Ndisabiye

    Sasha Ndisabiye grew up splitting her time between southern California and southern Arizona before moving to Oklahoma to attend Langston University. After graduating from Langston with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in sociology, she completed a NonDoc editorial internship in the summer of 2024. She became NonDoc’s education reporter in October 2024.

  • Sasha Ndisabiye

    Sasha Ndisabiye grew up splitting her time between southern California and southern Arizona before moving to Oklahoma to attend Langston University. After graduating from Langston with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in sociology, she completed a NonDoc editorial internship in the summer of 2024. She became NonDoc’s education reporter in October 2024.