Edmond Schools Defy State Superintendent, Keep Contested Books in Libraries
Last year, State Superintendent Ryan Walters demanded Edmond Public Schools remove a book for what he claims is pornography. The school district has voted to keep the book.
The Edmond Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to keep American author Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle in their three high school libraries earlier this week.
This vote follows the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling that school districts have the legal authority to choose which books they keep in their libraries.
Previously, State Superintendent Ryan Walters threatened to lower the district’s accreditation if it did not remove the book, which Walters claims contains pornography.
The Glass Castle is a memoir which mentions the author’s experience with sexual abuse in her childhood.
Another book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, was also targeted by Walters. The Edmond Public Schools Board voted to keep that book in August. Similarly, the book mentions childhood sexual abuse.
Oklahoma AG Joins GOP Colleagues in Urging Trump to Fulfill Immigration Promises
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and his counterparts in 18 other Republican-led states have asked incoming President Trump to do something he’s already promised.
From Alaska to Florida – and 17 states in between – Republican attorneys general are asking incoming President Trump to keep his word on immigration enforcement promises he made on the Campaign trail.
They sent Trump a letter and then blasted it to the media in a press release.
Drummond was among AGs who vow to support Trump’s lofty goal of deporting nearly 11 million people over four years, rescinding the Obama-era Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, and end U.S. birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants.
Also in the letter, the attorneys general say they support closing the southern border, finishing Trump’s border wall and revitalizing county-federal level agreements deputizing sheriffs to enforce immigration locally.
Signing the letter is Drummond's latest move in line with his efforts to enforce immigration at the state level through House Bill 4156, which is paused in court.
Wildfires Devastate Historic Will Rogers Ranch in California
The raging wildfires near Los Angeles destroyed the former home of Oklahoma native Will Rogers.
Officials with the Oklahoma Historical Society say fire scorched about 186 acres of land in the Will Rogers State Historic Park including the home.
Rogers is Cherokee and was born in Oklahoma's Indian Territory in 1879.
He became Hollywood's most popular and highest paid actor in the 1930s.
The Rogers family donated the ranch in 1944 to the State of California to act as a living museum to Will Rogers.
His legacy lives on in Oklahoma at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore.
The museum has the world’s largest collection of Will Rogers memorabilia and his entire collection of writings.
Oklahoma Athletes Shine in Inaugural Native American All-Star Football Game
High school students went head-to-head in the first Native American All-Star Football Game in Dallas this week. Seven tribal nations in Oklahoma were represented on the field.
More than 50 Indigenous seniors have spent the last few days in Dallas gaining football skills, mentorship and college preparation to set themselves up to be leaders in their communities.
“It's been it's been fun. Meet new people, a lot of accountability," said Benny Mattioda, who is Choctaw and a senior at Hartshorne High School in southeast Oklahoma.
Mattioda says the program —put on by the National Football League, Nike and Native American Athletic Foundation— has taught him several lessons.
“Just don't be afraid to go out and do stuff. I haven't been out of Oklahoma in probably a year, and then I came and done this. It was just a big change," he said.
He says the highlight was going to the Dallas Cowboys headquarters, where he imagined he might never visit.
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