State Board of Education Suspends More Than A Dozen Teaching Certificates

The Oklahoma State Board of Education had a packed agenda in Thursday's meeting.

The board acted on several items, ranging from teacher certifications to gender rules.

The meeting began with public comments. One man expressed his anger about the appointment of Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the “Libs of TikTok” account to OSDE’s Library Media Advisory Committee. “You took somebody that threatened our children literally threatened our children,” said businessman Sean Cummings. “You took somebody that threatened our children literally threatened our children.”

Another woman said she was abused by a teacher 20 years ago and demanding change. “I fell in love when I was 14, the problem was that was with a married band director from the next town over,” said Sheena Martin. “I am here on behalf of myself and the dozens of cases like mine that you have allowed to sit and gather dust.”

However, State Superintendent Ryan Walters said the most aggressive action was taken by the board during Thursday’s meeting, against at least 14 Oklahoma teachers. “I want to be very clear, sexual predators, you will not work in Oklahoma schools,” Walters said. “We are going to continue to take drastic and swift action against those individuals who break that sacred trust.”

Those teachers include Edison Middle School math teacher Christin Covel, who is accused of sex crimes with children including a 13-year-old in Kansas. Another one is former Payne County teacher Kimberly Coates. She was suspected of drinking in her classroom and later charged with being drunk on the job. A teacher from Woodward Middle School was also on the list, Benjamin Hall, who is charged with seven counts of lewd acts to a child. Dallas Ewton, his certification is also suspended. Ewton is charged with several sex crimes dating back to 2012. The PE teacher, who taught math at Morris High School, faces several charges accusing him of sexually assaulting at least two of his previous students.

“You're going to continue to see us act very swiftly on sexual predators in the classroom,” Walters said. “It's the most aggressive action the state's ever taken, we're going to keep doing that and keep making sure our kids are safe.”

The board also adopted new accreditation rules, that would put more focus on academic success, as well as new gender rules. “It's the most radical concept we've ever come across in K-12 education, that you can be gender fluid and change your gender constantly,” Walters said. “We've seen issues in schools where teachers have been targeted by individuals claiming, ‘You're not changing my gender and my pronouns every day.’ Look, we need to be worried about educating kids so we're not going to worry about what games the left continues to play with our kids.”

As far as the suspensions are concerned, many of these are pending an official revocation hearing.