ROPE Report Live; Jenni And Michael Talk Edmond Public School's Refusal To Ditch Bad Books

Recently, the Oklahoma State Board of Education adopted new rules (which still have to be approved by the OK Legislature) that would downgrade the accreditation of schools for having "Pornographic material or Sexualized content" available to minors on campus (https://sde.ok.gov/sites/default/files/FINAL%20210.35-3-121%20Prohibiting%20Pornographic%20Materials.pdf).Show more

While many parents applauded this rule, Superintendent of Edmond Public Schools, Angela Grunwald says that her school's accreditation should not be downgraded due to 'curriculum' choices. Apparently, the books Glass Castle and Kite Runner, which have been used in the EPS high school English curriculum for many years, were reported to the Oklahoma State Department of Education through the Awarity system - an online program which accepts complaints about Oklahoma public schools originally set up to report bullying incidents. Once the books were reported, OSDE told EPS that they must remove the books according to the new rule, or have their accreditation downgraded.

Instead of removing the books from the curriculum and EPS' library system, Grunwald is electing to use taxpayer funds to pay attorneys to thwart taxpayers by taking their case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to STOP the OSDE from downgrading the school while keeping books that parents have objected to since 2016 (https://thefederalist.com/2016/03/15/parents-shouldnt-let-schools-force-kids-to-read-smut/). A formal complaint was field with EPS in 2017 regarding both books.

We'll be showing evidence of the complaints and pointing out various inconsistencies in Grunwald's video 'explainer' to parents of why they're using taxpayer dollars to stop taxpayer complaints.