Civil Liberties
Related: About this forumOklahoma revokes license of teacher who gave class QR code to Brooklyn library in book-ban protest
Hat tip, a thread at Joe.My.God.
Oklahoma revokes license of teacher who gave class QR code to Brooklyn library in book-ban protest
https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F09%2F85%2F0d5936bb8ae0dc9587e6a5197937%2F5449689124ce44d0a7da67aee29a0ed1
FILE - Former Norman High School English teacher Summer Boismier holds up a T-shirt with a QR code link to the Brooklyn Public Library at the Green Feather Book Company in Norman, Okla., on Oct. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy, File)
BY NADIA LATHAN
Updated 3:47 PM EDT, August 23, 2024
Oklahomas education board has revoked the license of a former teacher who drew national attention during surging book-ban efforts across the U.S. in 2022 when she covered part of her classroom bookshelf in red tape with the words Books the state didnt want you to read.
The decision Thursday went against a judge who had advised the Oklahoma Board of Education not to revoke the license of Summer Boismier, who had also put in her high school classroom a QR code of the Brooklyn Public Librarys catalogue of banned books.
An attorney for Boismier, who now works at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City, told reporters after the board meeting that they would seek to overturn the decision. I will not apologize for sharing publicly available information about library access with my students, the former teacher posted on X. My livelihood will never be as important as someones life or right to read what they want.
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Boismier, a fervent reader with a passion for fantasy novels, had been teaching English for nine years when she was involuntarily thrust into the center of Walters campaign for statewide office in August 2022. She received threats on social media and was accused of being part of a broader movement led by teachers to influence childrens political beliefs. Boismier resigned soon after.
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Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
NADIA LATHAN
Lathan is a statehouse reporter based in Austin, Texas. She is a Report for America corps member.
iluvtennis
(20,801 posts)rubbersole
(8,438 posts)But Florida has a big head start. Rick Scott was governor before meatball. So there's that.
dameatball
(7,602 posts)JoseBalow
(5,007 posts)rubbersole
(8,438 posts)Just because you can read. Well, Texas...Florida had a head start and we got rid of books and competent teachers and our governors are drooling 🤤 idiots. Abbott had better pick up the pace or we'll remain #1 in the nazi race to the bottom forever.
Lonestarblue
(11,721 posts)ArkansasDemocrat1
(3,213 posts)My wife and I were thinking of buying or building there, but she said to me last week that Oklahoma scares her and we should wait. She works a second job there.
That means no one makes $$ from selling me a home or lot, no one makes $$ building a home for me and Mrs ArkD, no community benefits from my property tax and buying things in that community, OK doesn't get $$ for my vehicle plates and so on...
Your hate is costing you big bucks from everyone who is refusing to buy, OK realtors.
OK is NOT ok.
moonscape
(5,342 posts)(CA Central Coast) to Tulsa to join a Senior co-housing community. Shes homesick, but needed to go to a lower cost of living place.
That said, she really likes Tulsa, and by nature of who is attracted to co-housing, they are all liberal so she lives in a liberal bubble. She did say though, that she would not live anywhere else in OK! Tulsa (she claims) is more purple than red.
Said there is a great arts community, The Gathering Place is an impressive park, and the Oklahomans she has met and befriended are lovely.
She is as dark blue as I am.
ArkansasDemocrat1
(3,213 posts)OKC doesn't feel progressive for a city that size.
AZ8theist
(6,463 posts)Because the Reich wing in America wants to switch out public schools for CHRISTIAN MADRASSAS.
Same indoctrination, different book.
PatrickforB
(15,101 posts)sinkingfeeling
(52,964 posts)ShazzieB
(18,557 posts)She sounds like a pretty awesome teacher. Illinois, or any other state, would be lucky to have her.
erronis
(16,783 posts)Even if they shut down the public internet, we've learned too much and can get our information out there.
We've used radio-frequency for decades and the technologies have improved incredibly. Frequency shifting and hopping and great error correcting. Sure, the latest Mein Diktator speech may not come through flawlessly, but for sharing information - we'll adapt.
AllaN01Bear
(22,999 posts)jmowreader
(51,397 posts)...how many people really want to buy a military-grade hardware data scrambler to surf the Internet? Software-only encryption wouldn't be safe because the Christian Taliban would demand backdoors in it.
ShazzieB
(18,557 posts)It's public info, all right. Virtually all public libraries have websites these days, and a large percentage of those have online searchable catalogs that anyone with internet access can freely browse.
I'd be willing to bet that most of today's high school kids are capable of figuring out how to access library catalogs all over this country and many outside of it, on their own phone, without any extra help. Good luck to Oklahoma with putting a stop to that!
As a former librarian with an undergrad degree in English, all this book banning garbage makes me both outraged and sick!
AllaN01Bear
(22,999 posts)soldierant
(7,844 posts)Then again, I did most of my reading at home. And neither my mother nor my grandmother would have stoped me from reading anything I wanted to read.
markodochartaigh
(1,993 posts)Amarillo, Texas. As far as I'm aware all of my instructors were far more conservative than my Mom's family. The one I had the biggest problem with was the tennis coach who taught world history. His tests were 80% multiple choice and 20% essay. He always gave me 0 on all of the essay questions. But he was a big tennis star. There was nothing to be done except keep my mouth shut. As far as sex education classes, nothing was taught. The area had, and still has extremely high teen pregnancy rates. And about a quarter of my graduating class didn't make it to 65.
soldierant
(7,844 posts)for failing to remember my own white cis privilege. (At least I'm female.) Not to mention differences of environment. I grew up in California, in the same city that Stanford is in. For much of my childhood the district I lived in voted Republican, but that was not as damning a fact then as it would be now. I had sex education in junior high, bt I didn't really learn anything as my mother had given me a book when I was about 8. That may sound like a cop-out - but she knew I'd rather read than listen And it covered everything that was i the 9th grade class and more. But it didn't cover anything non-binary. But we did talk at home about Christine Jorgenson. So I at least knew that trans people existed and that they were just people who happened to have been born with a soul that didn't match their bodies. No big deal. Your chilhood and teens would have been) much worse. (BTW the address I gre up at is now in a district that is Democratic by 26 points.)
AZ8theist
(6,463 posts)....they want to return to the 1250s!!
Hermit-The-Prog
(36,570 posts)DENVERPOPS
(9,881 posts)that figures............
the most barren "wasteland" of America, that's why they did the "Trail of Tears" to that state.......
Thank goodness they discovered oil, otherwise it would have been used as a depository for Hazardous Waste Materials for the entire nation.
JoseBalow
(5,007 posts)It's just absurd to punish someone for something like this.
usaf-vet
(6,862 posts)....... a multi-million-dollar $ jury settlement for winning her lawsuit against the school district.
ancianita
(38,369 posts)It could fire up the student population to put political pressure on their families & communities to stop this 1A assault.
Teaching professionals fight to maintain high public school education standards beyond state minimums, especially when some states use their children as political footballs.
She's fought the good fight and lost, so her leaving would be OK's loss. Most states have reciprocal licensing and will welcome her.
tirebiter
(2,582 posts)I used to have good feelings about there and Texas.
MyOwnPeace
(17,273 posts)They want to be sure to have oversight regarding what your kids could or might read in their schools, but wont do SHIT about keeping them safe from guns in that very same building
l
mahatmakanejeeves
(60,739 posts)Hat tip, Joe.My.God.
Former Norman High School teachers certificate revoked after two years of turmoil, Walters says
BY: EMMA MURPHY - AUGUST 22, 2024 3:47 PM
OKLAHOMA CITY Two years after promising to ban a former Norman High School educator from ever teaching in Oklahoma again, state Superintendent Ryan Walters said that teachers certification is now revoked.
The teacher, Summer Boismier, drew national attention in August 2022 for posting a QR code in her classroom that linked to a library catalog containing banned books.
The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted on Thursday to approve a new order in the states revocation case against Boismier. Walters said the new order, which he hasnt publicly released, formally revoked her teaching certificate.
Walters claimed Boismier violated House Bill 1775, which bans the teaching of certain race and gender-related concepts, and said she is too liberal to teach in Oklahoma. She broke the law, you know, Walters said after the state board meeting. And I said from the beginning, when you have a teacher that breaks the law, says she broke the law, says shell continue to break the law.
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