During his three years as Oklahoma's state superintendent of public schools, former high school history teacher Ryan Walters has transformed himself into one of the most courageous culture warriors in a state known for its radical conservative politics.
Earlier this month, gay and transgender advocates accused Walters of fostering dangerous intolerance in public schools after a 16-year-old non-binary student died the day after an altercation in a high school girls' bathroom. They accused him of adding to the atmosphere.
In her first interview following the death of her student, Nex Benedict, Walters told the New York Times that while the death was a tragedy, her thoughts on how gender issues should be handled in schools remain unchanged. He said there will be no change.
“There is no more than one gender. There are two. God created us that way,” Walters said, adding that she does not believe non-binary or transgender people exist. . He said Oklahoma schools do not allow students to use names or pronouns that differ from their birth gender.
“Individuals are created in the image of God, so we always treat them with dignity and respect,” Walters said. “But that doesn't change the truth.”
Walters, who is ultimately in charge of Oklahoma's public schools and has been talked about as a candidate for the higher office, is one of the state's most vocal figures in trying to prevent the discussion and promotion of LGBTQ issues in schools. It's a person. His fellow Republicans have supported a series of new and proposed bills targeting gay and transgender people.
Transgender students said in interviews that rhetoric from officials like Walters is seen by their classmates as permission to harass and bully them at school.
And at this week's Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting, Sean Cummings, vice mayor of the Oklahoma City-adjacent town known as The Villages, said the school board's anti-gay and anti-transgender policies were accused of being the cause of bullying. “You caused it,” he said, addressing Mr. Walters directly.
Questions remained about the bullying that Nex's family said she experienced at Owasso High School before the Feb. 7 bathroom altercation and how it had anything to do with their deaths. On Wednesday, police said Nex did not die from trauma, a fact Walters reiterated.
“We have heard that the death was not directly related to the school fight,” he said, warning that an investigation was ongoing.
Owasso Police Department spokesman Nick Boatman said investigators are reviewing video from the high school and plan to release it “at some point.” He said investigators have not yet determined the cause of the student's death.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of advocacy group GLAAD, called the death “a tragic, senseless and shocking attack that should never be forgotten” in an Instagram post this week.
Walters said the tragedy was made worse by outside advocates trying to make a political point.
“I think it's terrible that there are radical leftists who are running for political purposes and trying to spin a narrative that is not true,” he said. “You have experienced a tragedy and caused people to try to exploit it for political gain.”
Officers interviewed students and staff at Owasso High School. According to the school district, the altercation lasted less than two minutes and the students involved were then able to walk to the health room.
Police said police were not alerted until Nex was taken to the hospital by his family. They went home that day. The next day, Nex was rushed to a hospital by local doctors, where he was pronounced dead. The state medical examiner's office declined to comment on autopsy or toxicology results, but said a final report would eventually be released.
Much of the criticism Walters has received has centered on his recent appointment of Chaya Lajczyk as state commissioner. Lajczyk has posted anti-gay and anti-transgender content on his X account, Libs of TikTok, and is a member of a committee that reviews the appropriateness of books in school libraries. These are students who are mentally and gender nonconforming,” said Nicole McAfee, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, which advocates for transgender and gay rights. After Nex's death, they wrote, “I can't count the number of times people have shared the image that Ryan Walters promoted during his campaign targeting people in bathrooms, especially with language that demonized transgender youth.'' I've seen it,” he said.
But Mr. Walters, 38, has been an unapologetic lightning rod in Oklahoma for years, launching direct verbal attacks on school districts, teachers unions and, at times, individual teachers, calling them “pornographic” and ” It has been accused of promoting “radical gender theory.” Public school. He was appointed State Superintendent of Education by Governor Kevin Stitt in 2020 and was elected to a new term in 2022.
He has pressured educators in several districts to resign, including a teacher who protested against the banning of certain books and an elementary school principal who staged a drug performance outside of school.
This aggressively partisan approach surprised some of Mr. Walters' former students, many of whom praised him as an approachable teacher who valued discussion. “Mr. Walters would go out of his way to be apolitical,” said Shane Hood, who took at least three history classes with Mr. Walters at McAlester High School. As his teacher, Mr. Hood rarely displayed his own political views, he said, other than displaying large cutouts of Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan.
“He was probably popular around the school,” Mr. Hood, 22, said, adding that Mr. Walters' current political personality did not fit with the teacher he knew.
Walters' public fight comes as conservative states across the country are passing laws restricting the rights of transgender people. In Oklahoma, lawmakers banned gender reassignment care for minors and explicitly prohibited the use of gender-neutral markers on birth certificates.
The Oklahoma State Legislature has now adopted a bill that would prohibit residents from changing their gender designation on their birth certificate and a policy that says gender is an “immutable biological characteristic” and allows the use of a different preferred name or pronouns. The government is considering a bill that would require public schools to ban. Another proposal, known as the Patriotism, Not Pride Act, would ban state institutions from displaying flags or symbols that support gay and transgender people.
“This is incredibly harmful,” said Whitney Cipolla, executive director of Oklahomans for Equality, a gay and transgender rights group. “I know queer educators who are afraid to teach.”
Transgender and nonbinary teens in Oklahoma said in interviews that the political climate has made things even more difficult for them.
“There's a lot of helplessness,” said Hari, an 18-year-old transgender girl and a high school senior in Claremore. She asked that her last name not be used because she feared it would make her a target of anti-transgender activists. . She said: “She always has that little fear that she's going to be attacked, that she's going to be one of the victims.”
Hari said he learned about Nex after meeting him as part of a program in Tulsa that provides counseling and other assistance to young people, including gay and transgender people. Hari said Nex was “a very kind, outgoing, very sweet person,” but she added that she didn't know much about the altercation that occurred before Nex's death.
In response to a question about how Oklahoma schools should treat students who identify as transgender, Walters said schools “will continue to treat all students with dignity and respect,” but ” “We accept all the prerequisites and step into transgender ideology,” he said, adding that he has no intention of forcing it. Teachers recruit them.
Mr. Walters, who described himself as a history buff and reader, said he felt the country was at a crossroads of sorts.
“You can clearly see a civil war going on, where the left is really fighting for the soul of our country,” he said. “They are undermining the very principles that made this country great, the Judeo-Christian values and traditions of this country.”
Returning to these values and traditions, he added, “That is what unites us.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed to research.
