On the new appointment to the osde library media advisory committee

It can be devastating to be an Oklahoman who cares. Yesterday, many of us who believed the current decision makers in our government could no longer surprise us, found ourselves still shocked to learn of the appointment of Chaya Raichik, founder of Libs of TikTok and resident of Los Angeles, CA, to serve on an Oklahoma State Department of Education Committee tasked with leading the efforts on book bans and library content censorship across Oklahoma public schools and public charter schools. This is not the first out of state advisor State Superintendent Walters has brought in, but given the direct ties between Raichik’s Libs of TikTok videos and bomb threats which have caused measurable distress and threat of harm to students and school staff at multiple Oklahoma school districts, this appointment is especially distressing. 

We wish we could offer an action that feels powerful at this moment. And, with an almost entirely gubernatorially appointed State Board of Education, we know as a community we have faced the realities of the frustrating lack of accountability we’re provided at our State Board and State Department of Education. We’ll continue to tune into State Board of Education Meetings, the next scheduled for this Thursday, where we monitor harmful actions, and organize alongside students, parents, educators, and community members. We’ll continue to work with partners in state and across the country to fight efforts to ban books and censor materials in school libraries, efforts we know disproportionately work to remove representation of BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ characters. Efforts we know cause harm to all students, librarians, and communities at large. We deserve better than this. We hope through this latest news, you can find some peace either through community, or through next steps. 

Now more than ever, we know how critical it is to plug in at your local school district. Several school districts across Oklahoma have elections February 13, 2024. You can see if you have a race on your ballot at the Oklahoma Voter Portal at https://okvoterportal.okelections.us/. You can find out more about your local school board and how to engage on our advocacy page at https://www.freedomoklahoma.org/school-board-info