Republican lawmakers call for investigation of Oklahoma student walkouts

OKLAHOMA CITY — A group of Republican lawmakers have urged the state’s top education official to investigate student walkouts, a method of youth protest for decades.

Over the past two weeks, students across the state have walked out of public high schools to hold demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose tactics during a mass deportation campaign have become a nationwide controversy.

Fourteen Republican lawmakers, including members of the far-right Freedom Caucus, signed a letter to state Superintendent Lindel Fields, calling for an investigation into whether students violated Oklahoma truancy laws and to potentially revoke teaching licenses of any educators who might have promoted or facilitated the walkouts.

The lawmakers’ letter, issued Tuesday, urged Fields to publicly oppose the demonstrations, which they called “politically charged protests.”

A statement from the Oklahoma State Department of Education, which Fields leads, included no condemnation nor a promise of an investigation.

“​​OSDE has been in contact with leaders at these schools, and each situation is being handled with a calm sense of order that ensures student safety to the fullest extent possible,” the statement reads.

Local districts can regulate on-campus demonstrations and have the authority to discipline students for violating attendance policies, the agency said. Parents must be engaged with helping students understand rights, limitations and responsible behaviors off campus, according to the statement.

Members of the Freedom Caucus have been outspoken against student-led anti-ICE protests during school hours. Joining them in signing the letter was the leader of the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, who is running as a GOP candidate for state superintendent.

“These actions disrupt the educational environment, undermine respect for the rule of law, and compromise student safety by removing minors from supervision without parental consent,” the letter states.

Oklahomans have walked out of school as a means of protest or advocacy since long before current high school students — or even their parents — were born.

About 400 students on Jan. 26, 1970, walked from Northeast High School to the state Capitol in Oklahoma City to advocate for a district bond issue, whose public support had wavered amid racial integration of the city’s schools.

More recently, about 1,000 students walked out of Oklahoma City high schools in 2016 to oppose statewide cuts to education funding.

Students walked with staff supervision from Classen School of Advanced Studies High School at Northeast to the Capitol in 2021 to support clemency for death-row inmate Julius Jones. Over 100 students marched to the Capitol on a school day in 2024 to protest anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the wake of Oklahoma teenager Nex Benedict’s death.

Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said complaints about this week’s walkouts are “selective outrage from Republicans as they cherry-pick issues happening in our public schools.”

“We’ve seen youth through the centuries be leaders in movements,” Kirt told reporters Thursday. “And I think instead of shutting it down, when you see kids in El Reno, kids in Mustang, kids in Oklahoma City, kids in Tulsa, kids in rural areas speaking about the same thing, we should be listening.”

When students at her child’s school in Oklahoma City staged a walkout, staff warned them there could be consequences, even more so for leaving campus, she said. Implying that educators are helping organize the demonstrations “is really disappointing to me because what I’ve seen is only them trying to keep (students) safe.”

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said there should be investigations into whether any school staff helped facilitate the walkouts.

Students shouldn’t miss school, and teachers should be disciplined if they encourage it, said the Senate’s top leader, President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle.

Paxton said local superintendents, not the state, should address it.

“The gist of the letter I can support,” he said. “Students should be in school. I mean, if you really want to do a walkout, if you really have something you stand up for, go do it on a Saturday. That would really impress me if you walked out on a Saturday.”