Hello, Walters? Controversial Waurika school assignment was from State-approved curriculum

This is a follow-up to my article from Wednesday, Perverted assignment given to students at Waurika High School, which covered a very detailed high school class assignment on sexual activities, including illegal and unnatural acts.

Parents in the community were rightfully upset, as pictures of the assignment quickly disseminated among even elementary students at the school. 

Jenni White at Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment (ROPE) interviewed the mother who first went public with the perverted assignment (you should read the whole thing):

A truly unfortunate event happened in the classroom of Ashlyn Jade’s niece at Waurika Public Schools Monday afternoon.

According to an interview with Ashlyn this afternoon, Coach Roger Jesse, a teacher/coach with 40+ years in Oklahoma education – and someone with many years of service and an excellent reputation in Waurika Public Schools – gave his 11th grade psychology class an assignment that has now made internet viral status.

Coach Jesse was asked to teach a new extra curricular psychology class at Waurika High School this semester. Ashlyn believes that, in a hurry and under duress from a strenuous teaching/coaching schedule, he downloaded a STATE APPROVED psychology curriculum to use during his class on Monday afternoon, copied it and handed it out without really reviewing it.

In her interview with White, Jade claimed that high school principal (Derek Millburn) was dismissive of her concerns over the assignment, essentially saying that it had already been taken care of and that there was nothing to be concerned about. 

The teacher in question, who also coaches at the school, has seemingly been put on administrative leave, but Jade thinks the "responsibility and repercussions for this terrible situation should not fall on the shoulders of the teacher, but on Principal Milburn, Superintendent Simmons and State Superintendent Ryan Walters,” because the teacher downloaded the assignment directly from the Oklahoma State Department of Education website. This material had been vetted and approved by OSDE... which makes one wonder what State Superintendent Ryan Walters is doing if his own department has this type of material, which he rails against in his social media videos, available for daily distribution to students and teachers across the state, with the OSDE stamp of approval.

What else is Walters missing while at the helm of OSDE?

Waurika Public Schools issued the following statement on Wednesday. I had contacted WPS earlier in the afternoon on the matter, with questions about the curriculum and assignment, but to this point have had no reply.

Statement from Waurika Public Schools

Parents and Stakeholders, 

On Monday, March 3, 2025 Waurika Public School administration was made aware of a form that was sent out to our high school Psychology class. This form was taken from a state approved Psychology curriculum. The content of this form was inappropriate for students and should have never been dispersed. The curriculum was removed from class and all parents of this class were notified on Monday, March 3, 2025. Waurika Public Schools will continue to hold our students and our staff members to the highest of expectations.

Respectfully,

Cody Simmons

Superintendent, Waurika Public Schools

In her post on ROPE's blog (which I encourage you to read in full), White came to the same conclusion as the concerned Waurika parent:

Ultimately, it’s our Superintendent’s fault. The buck stops on his desk. He’s had no trouble pounding his dashboard during in-car videos railing (rightly) against discriminatory practices in schools, but he should be doing less pounding/videos and concentrating more on what’s on the state website for teachers to download.

Then, there’s the tepid, dismissive response of the Principal to Ashley. He – and the Superintendent – should have known that students would share that kind of crazy assignment on social media like crazy and be more concerned about ALL the students who could have seen it, instead of just those students in class.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters has some serious questions to answer amid all of this. He's been at the helm of the OSDE for two full years at this point, and has spent a lot of time venting on social media, hitting the national TV circuit, promoting his personal brand and political future, picking fights with school and political officials across the state... and apparently not enough time vetting what his own department has approved for teachers to teach students.

It's my view that the local administration and teacher also have to answer for the assignment going out in the first place. One should expect at least a small degree of due diligence in reviewing student assignments before handing them out.

Ultimately, parents and guardians have to be involved and aware of what is going on with their children at school. School boards and school officials at all levels need to be held accountable for what they put into the minds of their students.

[The first version of this post mistakenly said Walters had been in office for four years. That was incorrect. Walters was elected in 2022 and took office in 2023. It should have read two years.]