OK: License Stripping May Have Been Illegal

The Saga of Summer Boismier, the teacher who dared to provide students with a link to a library that would loan books, is still not over. If you're new to this tale, I'll provide back story here, but if you're ready for the latest installment in this tale of education dudebro-in-chief Ryan Walters and his quest to punish wokitude, you can skip down the page.

Our story so far

Back in September of 2022, after Oklahoma had unveiled HB 1775, its own version of a Florida-style reading restriction law, Norma High School English teacher Boismier drew flak for covering some books in her classroom with the message "Books the state doesn't want you to read." Apparently even worse, she posted the QR code for the Brooklyn Public Libraries new eCard for teens program, which allows teens from all over the country to check out books, no matter how repressive or restrictive state or local rules they may live under.

She was suspended by the district, which said that this was about her "personal political statements" and a "political display" in the classroom. Boismier told The Gothamist

I saw this as an opportunity for my kids who were seeing their stories hidden to skirt that directive. Nowhere in my directives did it say we can't put a QR code on a wall

The suspension was brief, but Boismier decided this was not the kind of atmosphere in which she wanted to work, so she resigned, citing a culture of fear, confusion and uncertainty in schools, fomented by Oklahoma Republicans.

That wasn't enough to satisfy Walters, at the time campaigning for office. The whole business had been a high-profile brouhaha, so Candidate Walters popped up to put his two cents in via a letter that he posted on Twitter.

Saying that "providing access to banned and pornographic material is unacceptable" and "There is no place for a teacher with a liberal political agenda in the classroom," Walters called for Boismier's license to be revoked.  He made hounding her a campaign platform. And he called her out by name, arguing that the public do not want "activist teachers in classrooms" and that it's super important that "we continue to protect our kids from indoctrination. "Yes, this the same who later mandated that every teacher must use the Bible as a teaching tool in their classroom.

That, of course, led in true MAGA fashion to a flood of vulgarity and death threats directed at Boismier as reported by KFOR:

“These teachers need to be taken out and shot,” “teachers like this should not only be fired but also should be swinging from a tree,” “If Summer tried this in Afghanistan, they’d cut out her tongue for starters,” are just a minuscule fraction of the threats pouring into Summer Boismier’s inbox.

Boismier was unwilling to put up with all of this. When Walters continued to try to strip her teaching license (even though in December of 2022 she took a job at the Brooklyn Library), Boismier used a quirk of Oklahoma law to demand a trial-like hearing to dispute the department of education decision.

At that hearing in June of 2023, Assistant Attorney General Liz Stephens recommended against taking Boismier's license, saying the state failed to prove that Boismier had broken the law. Let me repeat: the Assistant AG of the state said that Walters had no case.

Boismier wasn't done. In August of 2023, she filed a defamation lawsuit against Walters. Walters filed a motion to dismiss in January of this year, and U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Jones (Oklahoma's first Black magistrate and elevated to the district court by Donald Trump) denied the motion to dismiss. Walters had alleged that Boismier was a sort of public figure, and that malice on his part couldn't be shown. The judge disagreed, saying her case looks solid enough to proceed. So that lawsuit will continue winding through the court.

Meanwhile, the state board and Walters continued to move forward to take Boismier's license. As reported by Murray Evans at The Oklahoman, they decided hold yet another hearing to "finalize the revocation" in March. Only there's a problem with that plan. In March, all of the department's attorneys quit, so they had no lawyers with which to hold a legal-type proceeding. They've postponed action until May. Once again, Walters had shot himself in the foot by just being lousy at his job.

In June, a revocation order was written, charging among other things that she violated HB 1775 including the charge that she "intended to entice her students to seek out and read" naughty books. Spicy stuff. By August, the Oklahoma State Board of Education voted to strip Boismier of her license. Reported M. Scott Cart and Murray Evans for The Oklahoman:

“She (Boismier) broke the law,” Walters said [speaking to reporters after the meeting]. “And I said from the beginning, when you have a teacher that breaks the law, said she broke the law, (and) said she will continue to break the law — that can’t stand.”

Walters said he wanted Oklahomans to be very clear that Oklahoma State Department of Education would hold teachers accountable. “The Legislature passes laws, we have rules, teacher code of conduct that goes along with those things ― those will be enforced. I wanted every parent to know they have the best teacher possible in their kid’s classroom.”

The Newest Update (And Newest Screw-Up From The Department of Ed)

"We have rules" turns out to be a pretty flexible statement in light of what was revealed when folks finally got a look at the revocation order.

Way back in 2021, a whole coalition of folks filed a lawsuit against HB 1775, and in June of this year, a federal court granted a preliminary instruction to halt significant portions of that law, including the parts about teaching banned concepts in K-12 classrooms. 

Specifically, the injunction was issued almost two weeks before Walters office wrote up the order to revoke Boismier's license for violating the law they had been told they couldn't yet enforce.

You might think that maybe they just hadn't gotten word yet, as Walters office is kind of a mess. But no -- they knew HB 1775 was stayed because they included a footnote sating that nothing in the revocation order relied on parts of HB 1775 that were subject to the preliminary injunction. So it was based on some part of HB 1775 not covered by the injunction, and that part would be...? The revocation order does not say. It does not point to which part of HB 1775 they say she violated.

As State Senator Mary Boren put it (as quoted by Spencer Humphrey at KFOR) :

They didn’t even dissect anything out of 1775. I think that’s very curious to me that that they think that they can get away with enforcing House Bill 1775 and try to cover themselves in a footnote.

 Boismier herself sent a statement to KFOR:

As we expected, the order we received today doesn’t hold up to any serious scrutiny. It should be an easy call for the courts to overturn it, since Walters chose to throw out the actual facts and law in the case to get the results he wanted and campaigned on. We will be heading to district court soon to do that. But sadly, until we get that court order, Oklahoma teachers now apparently have to fear getting their licenses revoked for criticizing the wrong politician or showing students how to get a library card.

So the end of this story is not yet in sight. There are still lessons to be learned about whose rules matter and who has to follow them and what happens when ambitious politicians decide to make harassment part of their campaign platform and go all cultural revolution on Americans. Stay tuned.