Walters proposal would suspend teachers under investigation for sexual assault

(The Center Square) – Teachers accused of sexual assault would automatically be suspended, and school districts would be required to report the investigation to the Oklahoma State Department of Education, according to a new proposal from Superintendent of Instruction Ryan Walters.

Walters said OSDE recently removed 14 teaching certificates since he took office due to sexually related incidents and 17 are pending.

“We are not going to give sexual predators the slightest foothold in our classrooms,” Walters said. “What we have seen is radical leftist and the teachers unions turning our schools into Epstein Island.”

Another rule would clarify what community standards are in an application for a teaching certificate.

“If a person cannot uphold those community standards, or acts beyond those community standards, we will act to pull their teaching certificate,” Walters said. “This will allow us to stop the grooming as it has been happening in our schools by these sexual predators.”

School districts must also have strict hiring practices, or it could affect their accreditation, Walters said.

“This is to ensure that what districts are doing is hiring folks with a good background check with a good understanding of who they are hiring, do they meet these standards,” Walters said. “And secondly, if they don’t what is being done about it?”

The superintendent said he is working with Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, to add an amendment to a bill passed last year requiring law enforcement to notify a school district if they are investigating a crime involving a student with one of their teachers.

“An addition would require that when a district if informed about that information from law enforcement, they must pass the information to us, the state department of education,” Walters said.

The Oklahoma Education Association declined to comment. The Oklahoma School Boards Association did not return a message to The Center Square seeking comment.