Ryan Walters – the Oklahoma Republican education official who made headlines during the campaign by falsely claiming there were students at a US school who identified as cats – is at the center of controversy again, this time for a strange tweet.
Early Saturday night, Walters, Oklahoma’s secretary of education and state superintendent of public instruction, sent a tweet from the campaign account with a black-and-white image of a female high school student washing her hands in the bathroom, while two other women watch her suspiciously in the mirror.
The image includes the words “Student Safety on the Liberal Agenda.” In the tweet, Walters wrote: “I will continue to fight for the students.”
The ambiguity of the tweet is open to interpretation – especially since the girl in the sink is white, while the two girls watching her appear to be of color.
Walters’ post is provocative editorial Tuesday in The Oklahomanthe country’s largest newspaper, which called on him to tone down his rhetoric or resign.
“There is no precedent for the implications of Walters’ tweet Saturday. It’s time for Oklahomans to take a stand for leadership that exudes decency and competence from the superintendent and demand that he end his disparaging rhetoric, or resign,” said the editor. “That would be the best antidote to this metastasis poison, a good place to start.”
The state Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Many people on Twitter saw Walters’ post as racist.
“Saving the white girls from the non-white girls is the only hero we need,” said one user sarcastic.
“So, no mixed bathrooms?” others wrote. “Are you talking about quiet again?”
Another, pointing “Did you wash your hands?” signs appear in the picture, jokingly speculated that Walters was inveighing against his basic health. “Right or wrong, people have to wash their hands,” one user replied.
“It’s time for Oklahomans to take a stand for leadership that exudes decency and competence from the superintendent and demand that they end their disparaging rhetoric, or resign.”
– Editorial in The Oklahoman newspaper
As of Wednesday afternoon, the tweet had generated more than 1,300 comments and 175 likes, and had been viewed more than 1 million times.
It wasn’t Walters’ first brush with controversy. He has been an outspoken supporter of school vouchers, which support the nation’s rural schools, and he has often railed against “critical race theory,” an academic term that conservatives have adopted as an umbrella phrase for almost all cases involving educators. acknowledge the existence of systemic inequality.
Walters barely won the Republican nomination for superintendent, but easily won the general election in a deeply conservative state.
In his public campaign, he said he had been told by former colleagues that there had been meeting about a student at a colleague’s school called a cat and ask to use the litter box. The superintendent of the Walters school district in McAlester said there was no such meeting.
Walters and his rhetoric were even cited by Democrats because of two failed Oklahoma attempts to land a battery manufacturing plant. In one example, Panasonic’s factory is finally going to neighboring Kansas, and just a few days ago, Volkswagen said it would be built in Ontario, Canada, instead of Oklahoma.
State Rep. Cyndi Munson (Oklahoma City), tthe leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives of Oklahoma, said: “If we want a large company like Volkswagen to choose Oklahoma from other countries and countries like Canada, we need more than just tax incentives,” referring to $700 million in tax breaks that Oklahoma offers. for the Volkswagen plant.
“We need lawmakers to stop creating laws that limit access to health care for women and transgender Oklahomans,” Munson said. “We need the governor and the state superintendent of public instruction to stop working to cut back and blame public schools.”
Whatever the intent of Walters’ tweet, some Twitter commenters remained appalled by the poor execution.
As one person: “High five for an intern design that clearly hates you.”