Oklahoma schools have refused to enforce the state’s rule that kids must use bathrooms matching their sex. Republicans are fighting back.

From The Federalist. The Oklahoma House passed a parental rights bill on Thursday mandating that public schools allow parents to inspect and object to teachings on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also requires students to use bathrooms that correspond with their sex.

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The amendment specifying bathroom use was a last-minute addition by Republican Rep. John Talley of Stillwater and Republican Rep. Kevin West of Moore in response to the Stillwater School Board’s refusal to back down from letting students use whichever bathrooms they want.

Despite pressure from the state’s Secretary of Education Ryan Walters and Attorney General John O’Connor, the Stillwater School Board insists that letting students use whichever bathroom they please is protected under the Biden administration’s proposed version of Title IX….

‘Protect Our Daughters’

Riley Flack, whose 12-year-old daughter attends school in the Stillwater school district, first learned about the bathroom policy from a friend whose grandaughter goes to the same school as his daughter and was friends with a boy who now says he’s a girl….

Ed Gallegos, another parent in the Stillwater Public School District, said he believes the school board and administration “seem to have embraced woke agendas at the expense of the common good.”

“Our daughters have a right to privacy, and we, as parents and a school district, have an obligation to protect their health and safety,” he told The Federalist….

‘Oklahoma Not Wokelahoma’

Under Title IX, schools and other educational institutions that receive funding from the federal government are prohibited from discriminating based on sex. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in March of 2021 that specified his intent to rewrite the federal rule and expand its definitions to include so-called gender identity. It’s an overhaul that is strongly opposed by nearly 30 parents’ rights organizations and one that Walters says is wrongly interpreted by the school board….

I asked this morning for an emergency State Board Meeting to respond to the Stillwater School Public School Board.

This is Oklahoma not Wokelahoma pic.twitter.com/XWKFx6LeZE

— Secretary Ryan Walters (@sec_walters) April 19, 2022

In a letter to the school board in early April, Walters said the school board holds an “incorrect interpretation” of Title IX and that the district has “no right to allow men to use the girls’ restrooms in our schools….”

Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, a Democrat candidate for governor, recently confirmed that she believes the Stillwater School Board has “legal precedent,” which she said “has addressed the need for equal access, including facilities,” even after she admitted that “no legal precedent on this topic currently exists in Oklahoma.”

Walters, who is a candidate for state superintendent, said Hofmeister is just stonewalling further state-level action on the issue by “muddying the waters….”

How are you fighting with parents and republicans to keep men out of women’s bathrooms? Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments!

(Excerpt from The Federalist. Photo Credit: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash)