A preliminary EF2 tornado swept through Shawnee Wednesday night. It didn’t injure anyone in town, but it destroyed buildings, uprooted trees and disrupted the school year for Shawnee students.
"Power lines are down everywhere, poles are down. We saw three semis blocking the street over there by Big Lots," said Shawnee resident Buffy Dunk.
She described her drive to Oklahoma Baptist University. She’s the mom of two OBU students, so Dunk and her family spent their day clearing tree limbs and picking up debris on campus. She says they found car bumpers, clothes, and old photographs.
"A lot of the shingles of Raley Chapel's roof that are all signed. And we were trying to save them at first. But now there's been so many, we haven't been saving them," Dunk said.
Raley Chapel now has a large hole in its roof, as do several other university buildings.
OBU’s students escaped the night without any recorded injuries.
Down the road from OBU, Shawnee High School lost several structures, including a gym, an ag barn and the press box at their football stadium, where graduation is supposed to take place next month. District Superintendent April Grace says she’s just glad no students or staff were hurt.
"We know we have a lot of staff and community members that are suffering from losing homes. I mean, this is a temporary home during the day for people, but it's not a place where people have to live day in and day out. So our heart goes out to the community," said Grace.
Gov. Kevin Stitt visited Shawnee Wednesday morning to talk with residents and survey the damage. Stitt has declared a state of emergency for five counties.
The National Weather Service sent crews out Thursday to other locations in central Oklahoma to survey damage. The Weather Service says at least one home in Cole suffered EF-3 tornado damage. Preliminary estimates found EF-0 damage just south of Tinker. Damage surveys continue today.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s request to vacate Richard Glossip’s death penalty sentence was denied on Thursday morning.
After more than two decades on death row and five previous delays to his execution, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals will not vacate Richard Glossip’s sentence or grant him a new stay of execution.
The court said they “found no credible claims to prevent the carrying out of Glossip’s sentence on the scheduled date” which is now May 18.
Earlier this month, AG Drummond’s office released an independent report highlighting the issues with Glossip’s case, including undisclosed documents and prosecutorial failures. The report came with the recommendation to vacate Glossip’s conviction.
Glossip was found guilty of hiring another man, Justin Sneed, to kill motel owner Barry Van Trese in 1997.
Drummond says he will continue his efforts to delay and stop Glossip’s execution.
An Oklahoma teacher has been named National Teacher of the Year.
The Council of Chief State School Officers has chosen Union Public Schools teacher Rebecka Peterson as the 2023 National Teacher of the Year. Peterson was named Oklahoma’s teacher of the year for 2022 to 2023. She has taught high school math at Union for 11 years and founded a blog where teachers can track good things happening in their classrooms.
According to a news release from the State Superintendent’s office, Peterson will travel throughout the United States highlighting teachers’ achievements and representing students.
"I’m trying to frame it as, I’m not leaving my classroom, but my classroom is expanding," Peterson said.
In the news release, state superintendent Ryan Walters said he’s “incredibly proud” of Peterson because she’s inspired Oklahoma children and lifted teachers’ potential across the state.
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