Ryan Walters' battle with Edmond schools over library books: What we know

Edmond Public Schools has filed a lawsuit after state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters threatened to downgrade the district's accreditation.

The lawsuit was filed against the state Board of Education, the state Education Department and state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters.

Here's what we know so far about the fight between Walters and Edmond Public Schools.

Why Ryan Walters wants to downgrade Edmond Public Schools accreditation

The Oklahoma State Department of Education threatened to lower Edmond Public Schools accreditation if it did not remove two books, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls and “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, from the libraries of the district’s three high schools.

Walters issued a statement about two hours after the Edmond district announced the lawsuit, saying it was a "subversion of accountability."

"Edmond Public Schools not only allows kids to access porn in schools, they are doubling down to keep pornography on the bookshelves," Walters' statement went on. "Parents and kids should have the confidence of going to schools to learn. Instead of focusing on education, EPS has chosen to peddle porn and is leading the charge to undermine parents in Oklahoma."

Walters said the fact he was elected to his office in a statewide election essentially gives him authority to force districts to bend to his will over the issue.

More: A growing number of school districts are supporting Edmond in lawsuit against Ryan Walters

Why Edmond Public Schools is filing a lawsuit against Ryan Walters

Edmond Public Schools filed a lawsuit Feb. 20 asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday to decide whether the Oklahoma State Board of Education or a local elected school board has the authority to establish policies concerning books in the district’s libraries.

Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Angela Grunewald said the district received correspondence last month ordering the district to "remove those books from our libraries, which is not something within their authority to do."

She noted the district, since 1997, “has had a clear policy for the review of books in our school library, a policy we have followed consistently for over 25 years” and that district board members “firmly believe in local control for school boards in Oklahoma and standing up for the laws passed by the state Legislature that guarantee that control.”

District accreditation is a "critical asset worth fighting to protect," Grunewald said, adding, "We do not have pornography in our classrooms and our libraries at Edmond Public Schools."

Other school districts issue support of Edmond in lawsuit against Ryan Walters

The superintendents of Oklahoma City Public Schools, Deer Creek Public Schools and Mid-Del Public Schools have voiced their support for Edmond Public Schools.

“OKCPS supports the right of Edmond Public Schools or any other school district to challenge actions that they believe do not serve the best interests of their students and community,” said Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Sean McDaniel. “Districts have school board members, who are elected by their constituents, to establish the policies that best fit the needs of their respective community. Communities deserve to have local issues addressed at the local level.”

What to know about The Glass Castle and Kite Runner

According to a letter received by Edmond Public Schools, the Education Department's Library Media Advisory Committee believe the books contain sexualized content and questioned whether either had any educational value.

According to rules approved by the state Department of Education in 2023, "Sexualized content" is "material that is not strictly Pornographic but otherwise contains excessive sexual material in light of the educational value of the material and in light of the youngest age of students with access to said material."

Issues the committee had with "Kite Runner," a fiction novel about a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul, include the "explicit, graphic sexual language in describing the violent same-sex rape of a 12-year-old boy by a group of boys" which could "deliver secondhand trauma to the reader."

More: Ryan Walters claims 'Glass Castle,' 'Kite Runner' contain porn. What do experts say?

On "The Glass Castle," a memoir by Jeanette Walls, the committee said the "sexual content is explicit and prevalent throughout," including: "a child going into a whorehouse, an uncle masturbating while touching a child's leg, a grandmother molesting a young boy, a child showing another child his father's penis, and rape."

While the letter said the books met the criteria for sexualized content, Walters has referred to them as pornographic in nature and criticized the district for choosing to "peddle porn."

"Kite Runner" was the 11th most challenged book between 2010 and 2019, according to a list compiled by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. "The Glass Castle" was No. 17 on that list.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters' fight over library books at Oklahoma district: What we know