Postal Workers Increasingly Face Threats of Violence and Theft
Over the last year at least eight postal workers in Oklahoma have been assaulted while doing their jobs.
Ken Mayfield is the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Oklahoma City Branch 458. He says postal workers deserve to feel safe at work. After all, they are an integral part of their communities.
“We watch out for customers who are hurt, we call the fire department if we notice somebody's house is on fire,” said Mayfield. “We watch out for our customers, and we’d just like for them to watch out for us.”
Oklahoma isn’t alone-In the past four years, there have been more than 2,000 instances of postal carrier violence across the nation.
In March, representatives in the U.S. House introduced H.R. 7629. The bill increases funding for the Postal Service to improve safety and mandates federal prosecutors prioritize crimes against letter carriers.
Mayfield encouraged Oklahomans to call their representatives and advocate for their mail carriers.
HB 1775 Under Temporary Injunction
Parts of an Oklahoma law that bans teaching certain race and gender topics in Oklahoma classrooms are on pause after a federal judge issued a temporary injunction Friday.
The move comes two and a half years after a lawsuit was filed.
The lawsuit claims HB1775 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. It was brought by OU’s Black Emergency Response Team and several other plaintiffs against the state attorney general, state superintendent and others.
In the orders, U.S. District Judge Charles Goodwin prevented the state from enforcing part of the law banning any university student orientation or requirement that presents the idea of race or sex stereotyping or bias.
The injunction also stops the state from enforcing prohibitions on school employees teaching two concepts: first, the concept that individuals should be discriminated against due to race or sex, and second, the concept that members of one race or sex should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex.
Goodwin said the provisions were impermissibly vague. However, Goodwin did uphold other parts, including a section that prohibits employees from teaching that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.
Oklahoma Civil Rights Trail Receives Funding
Lawmakers approved creating the Oklahoma Civil Rights Trail last year, and funding was included in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget recently signed into law.
The trail will highlight the state’s Black towns and locations important to the Civil Rights Movement, as well as Native American sites of historic significance.
The trail will traverse more than a dozen important sites across the state before ending at the Clara Luper Center, currently under construction in Oklahoma City.
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