Nine teaching qualifications suspended by the state authority

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After a more than hour-long meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education, members today voted to revoke the teaching licenses of nine teachers accused of various illegal activities. Board members also voted to accept investigative reports on other teachers facing disciplinary action and have initiated proceedings against a half-dozen other teachers whose teaching licenses could be revoked.

One of those still awaiting a hearing is former Norman High School teacher Summer Boismier, who is suing Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters for defamation over his statements about a QR code she placed in her classroom in August 2022 that provides access to books through the Brooklyn Public Library. Walters, meanwhile, is trying to revoke Boismier’s Oklahoma teaching license, even though she moved to New York and now works for the library.

The board voted unanimously to schedule a hearing for Boismier at its June 27 meeting to consider a motion to revoke her teaching license, which will automatically expire on June 30, three days after the hearing date.

In his introductory speech at today’s meeting, Walters gave an outlook on the further certificate revocations that are due to be examined on Thursday.

“A few months ago, this committee revoked the most teacher and administrator licenses in a single committee meeting with a record vote, and we will be here today to call for a new record in certificate revocations,” Walters said.

At the beginning of the meeting, Tulsa Public Schools officials presented their district’s planned summer programs to the board as part of its monthly accreditation update.

“Findings of fact, legal conclusions and recommendations”

The hearing to revoke Summer Boismier’s teaching license was originally scheduled for March and then postponed until May. On Thursday, it was postponed again to June 27, just three days before Boismier’s license expires anyway.

The committee also set a June 13 deadline for the state Department of Education to respond to Boismier’s motion to exclude Walters from the hearing, and for Boismier’s attorneys to object to the hearing officer’s findings of fact and legal conclusions.

“On June 13, we will submit all of the findings of fact, legal conclusions and recommendations,” Walters said during the meeting. “And then on June 27, we have the hearing, which will be held in a regular board meeting.”

Although the certificate expires on its own at the end of June, Walters has been vocal about his desire to revoke Boismier’s license after she resigned from her position as an English teacher at Norman High School amid national attention just days into the 2022-2023 school year.

Boismier resigned after making headlines for covering her classroom’s book collection with red paper on which she wrote, “Books the State Doesn’t Want You to Read.” Boismier also posted a QR code in her classroom that linked to the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned website.

Walters, who was still campaigning for state superintendent at the time, called for Boismier’s license to be revoked and began proceedings to do so after he took office. At the time, Walters made numerous social media posts and other comments about Boismier, leading her to sue him for defamation.

In January, board members scheduled the revocation hearing for their March meeting, where they agreed to postpone it until Thursday.

After the Norman incident, Boismier moved to New York. She does not appear to have made any effort to renew her certification.

Numerous legal issues lead to the suspension of the certificate

After a board meeting lasting approximately 70 minutes, the members of the State Committee voted unanimously to suspend the teaching authorization of the following persons:

• Cody Barlow, a former principal of Wewoka Middle School who is scheduled to go on trial in September on numerous counts of lewd or indecent acts or advances toward children under 16;
• John Boggs III, a certified McCurtain Public Schools teacher majoring in agricultural sciences, was charged in Haskell County in March with soliciting prostitution within 1,000 feet of a school;
• Stephen Gainor, a former OKCPS special education teacher who was fired last year for “inappropriately restraining” a student;
• Donald Holt, a Stigler High School teacher who was arraigned in Haskell County District Court on April 9 on charges of possession and distribution of obscene material;
• Tyler Patrick McGrew, a Sapulpa Public Schools teacher who was charged in November with illegal possession of a controlled substance;
• Aron Wayne Pearcy, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obscenity by electronic communication in Pottawatomie County District Court on April 17 and received a suspended sentence;
• Floyd Robinson, a Bristow Public Schools employee who is charged with three felony counts for allegedly using his phone to film students while they were undressed in the locker room;
• Jaelah Marche Rose, a former teacher and coach at Douglass High School who was charged with malicious damage to property for allegedly using a baseball bat to smash the taillights of her boyfriend’s truck, whom she discovered was dating another woman; and
• Vernon Tyler Thetford, a former Lexington High School teacher, was charged in April with five counts of lewd conduct with a minor.

In addition, members of the State Board of Education voted to accept the findings of fact and conclusions of a hearing officer on the following issues:

• Kristen Andrews, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence (four years suspended) for driving under the influence of alcohol and manslaughter;
• Christin Covel, a former student at Tulsa Edison Preparatory School who was charged with sex crimes in Kansas; and
• Hao Jiang dropped out of Western Heights Public Schools after he was caught sending messages online to someone he thought was an underage boy.

Finally, the members of the State Committee voted to appoint a hearing officer to conduct a hearing on the petition to revoke the teaching license of the following individuals:

• Amanda Bristow, who allegedly administered sleeping pills to elementary school children and whose attempt to change her legal name failed when she failed to appear for a hearing in Logan County District Court;
• Toya Edwards, a former Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher who was arrested in May 2021 for public intoxication and assault. Edwards filed for a restraining order against her boyfriend, Justin Hansbro, a week later. Five months later, Hansbro was arrested and charged with lewd acts with a minor, though the charges were ultimately dropped;
• Essence Fields, an Owasso elementary school teacher who faces first-degree murder charges for the shooting death of her partner;
• Brandi Price, the former superintendent of Mannsville Public Schools who resigned in February after pleading guilty to public intoxication; and
• Travis Sloat, a former Okay High School teacher, pleaded not guilty to a sexual battery charge in February after being accused of filming his daughter’s friend in the restroom.

The Board voted to present the results of these hearings to the Board at its June 27 meeting.

TPS introduces the “Ready, Set, Summer” program

As a condition of TPS’s “with deficiencies” accreditation, district administrators submitted monthly progress reports to the State Board of Education on various goals Walters and board members had set for the district.

As the district entered its summer break on Tuesday, TPS Superintendent Ebony Johnson and her deputy Kathy Dodd updated board members on the district’s Ready, Set, Summer program.

“(It) offers a full day of academic and continuing education programs at 24 of our locations across the district,” Dodd said.

Dodd said 7,200 students from preschool through eighth grade have enrolled in the program since it opened in March. Enrolled students receive 20 days of instruction, Dodd said.

In addition, Dodd said TPS will conduct four-week credit recovery boot camps at each high school location during the summer. Dodd’s presentation showed that across the district, 1,657 students are taking 3,390 credit recovery courses.

“Most importantly, this will provide our students and their families with more personalized care and attention to quickly get our over-aged, under-recognized students back on track while preventing or recapturing potential dropouts,” Dodd said.

Johnson said she hopes to maintain the district’s momentum through the summer and the 2024-2025 school year.

“I’m looking forward to working a lot with our team over the summer,” Johnson said. “They may not be as excited. They may want to take their time, but we’re going full steam ahead and I’m also looking forward to spending a full year in the superintendency to really be more focused and efficient.”

In Walters’ address at the start of the meeting, he said the state Department of Education will divert $180,000 from TPS’s spring literacy ambassador program to fund the Ready, Set, Summer program, and another $220,000 will go toward the district’s credit recovery boot camps.

“We asked Tulsa, ‘What are your innovative, outside-the-box ideas to really boost student success?’ And we really liked this one,” Walters said.

After the presentation, board member Donald Burdick praised Johnson for her work after she “took the lead in an unconventional way.”

“You’ve done incredibly well, and your team has done incredibly well,” Burdick said. “As a Tulsa resident, I’m incredibly proud of how you’ve taken on this challenge. My interpretation of it is that it’s absolutely focused on helping these kids learn, read, write, do math and succeed in society.”

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