EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma’s superintendent of education has sent an email to public school superintendents asking them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism within the state Department of Education.
Ryan Walters, a Republican, announced the new office on Wednesday and sent the email to school superintendents statewide on Thursday.
“As one of the first steps of the newly created department, we are requiring all Oklahoma schools to play the attached video for all children enrolled,” the email said.
Districts were also instructed to send the video to all parents of students.
In the video, Walters says religious freedom has been attacked and patriotism has been mocked “by woke teachers unions,” then prays for the leaders of the United States after saying students don’t have to join in the prayer.
“Specifically, I pray for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to effect change in the country,” Walters said.
In announcing the new department, Walters said it would “oversee the investigation of abuses of individual religious freedom or expressions of patriotism.”
Two of the state’s largest districts, Edmond in suburban Oklahoma City and Bixby in suburban Tulsa, said they have no plans to show students the video.
A spokesperson for the Tulsa district, the state’s largest district, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. A spokesman for the Oklahoma City district, the second largest, said district officials would meet to discuss the email.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office issued a statement Friday saying Walters does not have the authority under state law to issue such a mandate.
“Not only is this edict unenforceable, it violates parental rights, local control, and individual rights to free exercise,” the statement said.
Walters already faces two lawsuits over his June mandate that schools include the Bible in lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12. Several school districts have previously said they will ignore the mandate.
One of the lawsuits also notes that the original request for proposal from the Department of Education to purchase the Bibles appears to be aligned with the Bibles approved by now President-elect Donald Trump, which retail for $59 .99 each.
The request for proposal was later amended at the request of state procurement officials.
The Associated Press reported in October that Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bible was printed in China, a country Trump has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices, at a price of less than $3 per bible.
Walters announced earlier this week that he has purchased more than 500 Bibles for use in Advanced Placement government classes.
A statement from the education department said the 500 Bibles are “God Bless the USA Bibles.” They were ordered Thursday for about $25,000 and will arrive “in the coming weeks.”
Walters, a former public school teacher who was elected in 2022, ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and ridding himself of “radical leftists” who he said were indoctrinating children in classrooms.
