Warning: Some links contain graphic images.
As I noted in the video that I made about Let’s Talk about It, I requested from Oklahoma City Public Schools a few simple questions with an Open Records Request on February 8.
When was the book initially made available within the school library system?
When was the audit performed that caused the removal of the book?
When was said book actually removed from the library system, both physical and digital versions?
In addition to these questions, I also requested any emails or texts that the auditing and removal of the book may have generated.
Today, I finally received the information that I was seeking. Is the information whole? I can’t say for sure, but it does answer the pertinent questions that many people were asking. Let’s break this information down by question, but first a quick recap.
If you remember on February 7 of this year, the twitter account Libs of TikTok posted a screen shot of Let’s Talk about It, along with a picture of blurred images from the book. The account went on to state that OKCPS removed the book after their twitter post. I, along with other journalists and legislators, asked OKCPS to disclose when the book was removed, hoping for transparency. Outside of a boilerplate statement, everyone was left wondering about details.
Looking at the first question, the documents I received today indicate that the book was placed into the library system at John Marshall Enterprise High School sometime in January 2022. With OKCPS’s prior statements, they mentioned that the school district relies upon national vendors for a list of books to put into the library. It seems obvious that moving forward, this is not a secure way to protect students from material that may be harmful. Again, why do I say harmful? OKCPS in their own statement said they removed the book “to protect students and to ensure we are respecting and representing Oklahoma values.”
For the second question, I first want to talk about what happened at Tulsa regarding two other books: Gender Queer and Flamer. In July of 2022, then candidate Ryan Walters posted on social media pictures from the two graphic novels, which depicted sex acts. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister responded quickly, stating that the books contained pornography and needed to be removed. Tulsa public schools stated the books were removed the next day. In her statement, she also called for school districts across the state to begin auditing material in their libraries for the coming year. At least one district seemed to listen.
OKCPS stated in my records: “An internal audit occurred across the district after we were notified of the possibility of “challenged books” being available in school libraries.” After the audit, it is stated that the book was removed in August of 2022. No specific date was given for the audit, but it appears that it was performed within a month after Tulsa had their issues with the other two books.
Addressing my third question, OKCPS stated that they removed the physical book in August 2022, but that the district never had a digital copy of Let’s Talk about It. When Libs of TikTok posted that it was available online, OKCPS stated that their digital library platform, Destiny, was not updated in August 2022 when the physical book was removed, chalking it up to a clerical oversight. This oversight was corrected in February 2023. Again, no specific date, but likely after Libs of TikTok tweeted about the book being available within the district library system.
Now, let’s go over some of the other information that I received from the records request.
The documents provided to me contained whole/partial email chains by two other entities that were requesting some of the same information that I asked for, but their requests were not by an Open Records request. The first entity was a reporter from a local television outlet. I’m not naming this person, but I wanted to say a few things about this email chain and line of questions. This reporter sent an email directly to media relations within OKCPS twenty-six minutes after Libs of TikTok tweeted the pictures at 3:00PM on February 7.
The overall email chain asked a few questions, and I’ll paraphrase these questions:
Can you confirm the book is available at John Marshall High School?
Can you confirm the authenticity of the material shared in the Twitter post.
After being given the first boilerplate statement from OKCPS, follow up questions were asked, again I paraphrase:
Was the book ever available to students?
Was the picture an older screenshot if the book was once available but since taken down?
Can you share when the book was removed if it was ever available?
Did State Superintendent Ryan Walters reach out to the district before posting a video on Twitter about the post?
All of these questions were great and on point for what the public was wanting to know. These were things being asked by OKCPS via social media. The reporter’s last email came at 6:07PM. OKCPS responded to the reporter one last time at 7:29PM the same day, giving their final statement on the matter. They did go ahead and report that the district had not heard from Ryan Walters directly, and that their social media post highlights how the district has taken precautions to protect students.
The other entity I will name because they were given more detailed information, yet they chose not to make it known in their reporting. The Lost Ogle requested information from OKCPS at some point (I don’t have the front end questioning), and they provided The Lost Ogle the same statement as before, except they added one last bit of information: “The book was removed as part of our own internal audit in August 2022.” The Lost Ogle received this information at 3:13PM on February 8, the day after the post from Libs of TikTok.
You can go find their report yourself, Reader, though it may be behind a paywall. When reading the article, The Lost Ogle mentions July 2022 and the audit request by Hofmeister. The article never articulates exactly when the book was removed, just that it was. Again, many Oklahoma citizens were looking for transparency on if the book was ever available and when it was removed.
To make it easy, Reader, the book was available in the OKCPS school system for approximately eight months: from January 2022 to August 2022.
Another item that got caught in my records request was an email from Healthy Teen Network. Within the email, a story from Them was added, which mentions the book Let’s Talk about It. There were some other things mentioned in the email, but its a rabbit hole outside of the content of this update. If it leads to something, I’ll report it.
To summarize, it is apparent that there are books that should not be in our school libraries. Both Hofmeister and Walters agree. OKCPS agrees. And most Oklahomans agree. What is woefully lacking is transparency. In an environment where hostility and finger pointing comes quick, people and institutions have developed a default defensive posture. It shouldn’t take a month to get answers to easy questions. But here at Project Red Man, I will go the extra mile to get the answers.
Semper Fidelis