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For the second week in a row, bomb threats to schools across the city of Tulsa have left students, parents and teachers on edge.
On Thursday, Disney Elementary School in Tulsa was closed and evacuated due to “suspicious activity”. Police and district officials worked tandem to safety transport students and staff to a nearby church. The incident comes just days after a threat to bomb the school was sent to local officials.
Threats began after a post by an extremist group that was amplified by Walters
The barrage of threats started Tuesday, August 22nd. The day prior, a far-right extremist group called “Libs of TikTok” shared a doctored video of a Tulsa-area librarian. That edited video incorrectly insinuated the librarian was attempting to “indoctrinate” students with a “woke agenda”. The extremist group shared the librarian’s name and tagged her school district.
By Tuesday morning, both the librarian and her school received bomb threats. After those threats were reported in the news, State Superintendent Ryan Walters shared the post on Twitter, further insinuating the librarian had ill intent.
Each day since, schools across the Tulsa area have received numerous threats to harm students and teachers. It took nearly four days of threats for Walters to respond. He still has not deleted the original post.
The ongoing threats moved Democratic lawmakers in the state to urge further action. On Tuesday, Oklahoma House Democrats officially requested House GOP leadership to begin the process of investigating whether a host of actions from Walters throughout his short tenure in office rise to the level of impeachment.
House GOP leadership have reportedly called the requests “premature”, despite statements from numerous Republican officials tacitly condemning Walters’ rhetoric.
Threats come on the heels of other deepening controversies surrounding State Superintendent’s actions
Earlier in the year, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced he was investigating the misuse of federal funds during the pandemic. While Drummond did not name potential bad actors, Walters was in charge of overseeing those funds.
Recent reports from NonDoc and The Oklahoman seem to confirm Walters is also under investigation by the FBI.
The ongoing controversies and divisive rhetoric have blunted the start of the school year for thousands of Tulsa students. The worsening threats are poised to only exacerbate critical issues of student achievement, teacher retention and more.