Family sues Superintendent Ryan Walters, state board over administrative rule change

Filed Thursday morning in Cleveland County District Court, the suit accuses state Superintendent Ryan Walters, the five current State Board of Education members and former member Suzanne Reynolds of violating the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act, the Oklahoma Parents’ Bill of Rights, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act and the equal protection clauses of both the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions with the adoption of an administrative rule requiring districts to get OSBE approval before complying with any requests to change a student’s gender marker on school records.

Reynolds resigned from the board in October but was still a member when the emergency rules were adopted in September.

“Defendants’ actions serve no government interest, instead they are simply a means to harass, intimidate, humiliate and discriminate against transgender students,” the complaint reads in part. “The Board and its individual members frequently express their overt contempt for the rights of transgender students through relentless public commentary in meetings and to the media, often refusing to acknowledge the very existence of transgender people.”

The student and parent filing the lawsuit, referred to as J. Doe and Jane Doe respectively, obtained a court order this year to legally change the student’s gender designation.

However, without discussion or debate, the State Board of Education voted 5-0 in October to deny a request to allow for J. Doe’s student records with Moore Public Schools to be amended in compliance with that court order. Walters told reporters after that meeting that he could not foresee any circumstance in which the board would grant such a request.

In the filing, attorneys with the Oklahoma Equality Law Center and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice noted that their clients were not given any opportunity to respond or provide evidence to the state board about the request to change the student’s records and were not advised of any appeal options.

“When we talk about parents’ rights, we are talking about all parents. We can’t decide that we only want to protect certain ones,” Oklahoma Appleseed Center Legal Director Leslie Briggs said. “That is discrimination under the law and an intentional exclusion of some of the most vulnerable students in Oklahoma.”

Along with having the administrative rule declared invalid, the Does are seeking $75,000 in damages.

Although it was on the agenda as a potential action item, the board did not vote at Thursday afternoon’s meeting on making the rule change permanent, nor did its members discuss the lawsuit.

Walters issued a statement Thursday afternoon calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and “an unserious distraction.”

“Radical gender theory has led some people to fight the obvious, God-given biological nature of human beings: that there are two genders, male and female,” the statement reads in part. “Our pronoun policy aligns with common sense, truth and reality and protects schools and teachers from unfounded accusations of discrimination.”

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