In a filing with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, attorneys for Edmond Public Schools said the district's lawsuit against the Oklahoma State Board of Education focuses on what books the board should keep in school libraries. He reiterated that the focus was on whether he had the legal authority to set the rules.
Meanwhile, Ryan Walters, an attorney for the school board, the Oklahoma State Department of Education, and the state school superintendent, said in a separate filing that two nonprofit organizations, the Oklahoma School Boards Association and the Oklahoma State School Boards It took aim at the friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case. Oklahoma School Administrative Cooperation Council.
In a lawsuit filed Feb. 20, the District of Edmond asked the state Supreme Court to bypass the district court level and assert original jurisdiction in the case, saying the court's decision would affect the state's 500 He pointed out that all of the above school districts will be affected. Briefs last week were filed in support of that claim. The court has not set a date for hearing the case.
Walters said his statewide election as superintendent gives the State Board of Education the right to decide what books should be on the shelves of libraries in school districts with locally elected school boards. said that this is the main reason for having
more:Edmond Public Schools asks state Supreme Court to rule on Ryan Walters library case
The debate centers on whether the claim is true and the process by which such rules are created.
Edmond Superintendent Angela Grunewald said the lawsuit was filed after the state Department of Education threatened to lower the district's accreditation over a dispute over two books in the district's three high school libraries. said that it was done. The books in question are The Glass Castle by Janet Walls and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Brian Cleveland, a former general counsel for the Department of Education, told the school district that the books were reviewed by the agency's Library Media Advisory Committee and determined they were not suitable for school libraries.
The hearing before the state Supreme Court was canceled after the Department of Education agreed to voluntarily stay enforcement proceedings against the school district pending the court's decision.
Walters' lawyers argued in an earlier brief that the district did not meet the burden of original jurisdiction on the state Supreme Court. They argued that the state commission acted legally and within its right to set rules.
Edmond district attorneys disagreed, arguing the rules were improperly written. In their response, they noted that because any decision would affect every school district in the state, “this is exactly the type of consequential and far-reaching dispute over which the courts should have primary jurisdiction.” did.
The brief also said the agency's Library Media Advisory Committee is an “anonymous committee that is neither established nor operated” under rules consistent with the American Psychological Association. The only publicly known member of the committee is Chaya Reichik, founder of the conservative social media account Libs of TikTok. Despite multiple public records requests from multiple news organizations, the state Department of Education declined to release the names of the other commissioners.
Many lawyers, many legal briefs
With no in-house attorneys left on the state Department of Education staff, Walters, the Department of Education, and the school board are representing them with Paul Cason and Jason of the Goodwin/Lewis law firm in Oklahoma City.・Mr. Reese hired a private attorney named Emmalee Barresi. Barresi is the daughter-in-law of former state schools superintendent Janet Barresi, who served in the statewide elected office from 2011 to 2015.
Cason, Reese, and Emmalee Barresi prepared a brief in response to previous briefs filed by OSSBA and CCOSA. They charged that the OSSBA “fundamentally misunderstands Oklahoma's administrative regulations process,” and argued that “[i]t would require the court to invalidate a set of administrative regulations with which the OSSBA disagrees. It will likely order a review of the entire administrative structure.” ”
In their argument to the CCOSA brief, they stated: “The question before this court is not whether a particular book is obscene or contains 'pornographic' or 'obscene' material, but whether the Oklahoma State Board of Education has the authority to: I don't know. Oklahoma law. Establishes regulations governing the administration and operation of the public school system within the State of Oklahoma. There is no doubt that the law gives OSBE that power. ”
