Just when it seemed like Florida was taking all the book-banning glory, in comes Oklahoma. The state’s far-right superintendent of public schools, Ryan Walters, is facing blowback after appointing Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok social media account, to an Oklahoma library media advisory committee.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Walters justified his decision to appoint Raichik to the advisory committee. He said, “Chaya is on the front lines showing the world exactly what the radical left is all about—lowering standards, porn in schools and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids.”
“Her unique perspective is invaluable as part of my plan to make Oklahoma schools safer for kids and friendly to parents,” Walters wrote.
RELATED STORY: Libs of TikTok’s anti-LGBTQ+ posts linked to threats against schools, hospitals and drag shows
The Oklahoma State Department of Education told The Oklahoman in an email Tuesday that the volunteer advisory committee’s main objective is to decide whether a book in question violates provisions in the state’s administrative code aimed at “removing pornographic or sexualized content from public schools.”
Raichik reacted to the appointment by telling Fox News: “We will get porn out of schools.”
Here’s how The Associated Press described Libs of TikTok:
Raichik’s Libs of TikTok account on X frequently features anti-trans posts and clips of public school teachers aimed at generating right-wing outrage. One of her posts last year showing an edited video critical of a public school librarian in Tulsa led to several consecutive days of bomb threats to schools in the district.
“Why did Superintendent Walters appoint a social media influencer to the state’s Library Media Advisory Committee? What are her qualifications? Is she a librarian? No. Education background? No. Does she even live in Oklahoma?” […] “No. Is she a right-wing extremist social media influencer responsible for perpetuating repeated bomb threats on Oklahoma public schools? Yes. We cannot overlook why Superintendent Walters made this controversial appointment.”
And Republican state Rep. Mark McBride raised an unusual concern about Raichik’s appointment when he said it could violate a December 2022 executive order previously issued by GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt banning the use of TikTok by any state executive branch agency or employee post. The Oklahoman wrote:
McBride said he was shocked that any Oklahoma official would appoint someone to oversee content curation in Oklahoma schools who gained fame by using a social media platform controlled by the Communist Chinese Party. “Last year Gov. Stitt rightly banned the use of TikTok by state employees and agencies, and I do not believe we should be promoting influencers platformed by the CCP to positions in our agencies,” he said.
The Associated Press quoted McBride as saying in a text message:
“I don’t see any need to have a 28-year-old realtor from New York that has no children appointed to this position when there are extremely qualified parents, teachers and librarians in Oklahoma.”
Meanwhile in Florida, as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign came to a humiliating end, Republicans in the state House have taken a small step by proposing legislation that would make it more difficult to challenge books en masse, the online independent newsletter Popular Information reported. The newsletter called it “an implicit acknowledgment that book banning in Florida schools has gone too far.”
The proposed legislation, which has already cleared two House committees with Republican support, “authorizes school districts to assess a processing fee of $100 for each objection to a material by a resident or parent whose student is not enrolled in the school where the material is located.” The new fee would apply “to each objection after the first five.” It’s not much but it’s a start.
The Washington Post reported that 11 people were responsible for 60% of the school book challenges, the majority on titles by or about LGBTQ+ individuals or people of color, in the U.S. in 2021-2022 school year. Two of them—Bruce Friedman and Vicki Baggett—were from Florida, according to Popular Information. Popular Information wrote:
Friedman and Baggett have each challenged hundreds of books in Clay and Escambia County, respectively. (Baggett has challenged more books in Santa Rosa County.) Over half of all book objections in Florida during the 2022-3 school year came from Clay and Escambia County.
DeSantis signed several pieces of legislation that made it easier to take books off the shelves of the state’s public schools. But things went so far that PEN America, an advocacy group that opposes censorship, filed what it described as a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit claiming that the Escambia County School District violated First Amendment rights when it removed hundreds of titles from school library shelves for review, including dictionaries with definitions of sexual conduct.
These attacks on books have had a lot of impact, and not just on education. Despite Walters’ claims that Raichik’s appointment would make “Oklahoma schools safer for kids and friendly to parents,” schools and teachers in Oklahoma have already been subjected to threats after posts appeared on Libs of TikTok.
RELATED STORY: Oklahoma schools official amplifies Libs of TikTok, bomb threats ensue
But that’s not unusual. Research by the progressive analysis group Media Matters for America found there were dozens of bomb threats, death threats, and harassment targeting schools, hospitals, libraries, and Pride events, especially drag shows, that were made shortly after posts appeared on Raichik’s Libs of TikTok. The social media account reposts videos of users sharing liberal views, sometimes editing them, adding derisive conservative commentary.
In August 2023, The Oklahoman reported how Walters came under fire after he shared a Libs of TikTok post that featured a video of a Tulsa elementary school librarian entering a classroom with books in her hand and laughing as she lip-sync’s a Ludacris song.
The caption in the original TikTok video posted by the librarian, the assistant director of a grassroots literacy nonprofit, read: “My radical liberal agenda is teaching kids to love books and be kind.”
But the Libs of TikTok post altered the caption to read: “POV: Teachers in your state are dropping like flies but you are still just not quite finished pushing your woke agenda.” The post also was edited to include the librarian’s school biography identifying her and where she works. And it wasn’t long before bomb threats were made to Tulsa-area schools and the librarian received a death threat.
In its story on Tuesday about Raichik’s appointment, The Oklahoman mentioned other Libs of TikTok posts linked to Oklahoma:
Another “Libs of TikTok” post identified a Western Heights Public Schools principal as a drag performer and accused various Oklahoma school districts of having “pornographic” books in their libraries.
But none of this history seemed to bother Walters. He gave Fox News this statement:
“Chaya Raichik and I have developed a strong working relationship to rid schools of liberal, woke indoctrinators, union smut peddlers, and Epstein Island advocates. Oklahoma is ground zero to take back our schools from the radical leftists. I am proud to have her as a fierce defender of conservative values.”
Meanwhile, Popular Information said the proposed legislation suggests “that the enormous number of books being taken off the shelves of Florida schools has become a political problem for Florida Republicans” in a state that was in the “vanguard of removing books” from schools.
However, Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy, who introduced the legislation, told Politico that he was not against the book bans per se but only the quantity. “I’m happy that we are digging in and trying to remove reading material that is inappropriate for our children. But I think [book challengers] really need to be respectful of the amount of books that they are pouring into schools at one time.”
Popular Information reported this response from the book banning activist Bruce Friedman:
Friedman told Action News Jax that “[t]he fees bill will not pass into law” because it would be “political suicide for a conservative.” Even if the bill did pass, Friedman said, “it will fail to stop my efforts.”
Popular Information added that “while the bill represents a shift in the politics of book bans in Florida, it will not solve the issues with Florida’s school libraries” when it comes to the law signed by DeSantis giving residents the right to demand the removal of any library book that “depicts or describes sexual conduct.” In some cases, a lot of the books being removed from school libraries are the result of decisions taken by local school boards to review books in school libraries to ensure they comply with state law.
Popular Information wrote that “real change in Florida’s school libraries” would require repealing the law that led to the book bans.
RELATED STORY: Lawsuit targets Florida school district that removed dictionaries for describing sexual conduct
The Oklahoma State Department of Education told The Oklahoman newspaper in an email Tuesday that the volunteer advisory committee’s main objective is to decide whether a book in question violates provisions in the state’s administrative code aimed at “removing pornographic or sexualized content from public schools.”
Raichik reacted to the appointment by telling Fox News: “We will get porn out of schools.”
Here’s how The Associated Press described Libs of TikTok:
Raichik’s Libs of TikTok account on X frequently features anti-trans posts and clips of public school teachers aimed at generating right-wing outrage. One of her posts last year showing an edited video critical of a public school librarian in Tulsa led to several consecutive days of bomb threats to schools in the district.
“Why did Superintendent Walters appoint a social media influencer to the state’s Library Media Advisory Committee? What are her qualifications? Is she a librarian? No. Education background? No. Does she even live in Oklahoma?” […]
“No. Is she a right-wing extremist social media influencer responsible for perpetuating repeated bomb threats on Oklahoma public schools? Yes. We cannot overlook why Superintendent Walters made this controversial appointment.”
And Republican State Rep. Mark McBride raised an unusual concern about Raichik’s appointment when he said it could violate a December 2022 executive order previously issued by GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt banning the use of TikTok by any state executive branch agency or employee post. The Oklahoman wrote:
McBride said he was shocked that any Oklahoma official would appoint someone to oversee content curation in Oklahoma schools who gained fame by using a social media platform controlled by the Communist Chinese Party. “Last year Gov. Stitt rightly banned the use of TikTok by state employees and agencies, and I do not believe we should be promoting influencers platformed by the CCP to positions in our agencies,” he said.
The Associated Press quoted McBride as saying in a text message:
“I don’t see any need to have a 28-year-old realtor from New York that has no children appointed to this position when there are extremely qualified parents, teachers and librarians in Oklahoma.”
Meanwhile in Florida, as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign came to a humiliating end, Republicans in the Florida House have taken a small step by proposing legislation that would make it more difficult to challenge books en mass, the online independent newsletter Popular Information reported. The newsletter called it “an implicit acknowledgment that book banning in Florida schools has gone too far.”
The proposed legislation, which has already cleared two House committees with Republican support, “authorizes school districts to assess a processing fee of $100 for each objection to a material by a resident or parent whose student is not enrolled in the school where the material is located.” The new fee would apply “to each objection after the first five.” It’s not much but it’s a start.
The Washington Post reported that 11 people were responsible for 60% of the school book challenges, the majority on titles by or about LGBTQ+ individuals or people of color, in the U.S. in 2021-2022 school year. Two of them—Bruce Friedman and Vicki Baggett—were from Florida, according to Popular Information. Popular Information wrote:
Friedman and Baggett have each challenged hundreds of books in Clay and Escambia County, respectively. (Baggett has challenged more books in Santa Rosa County.) Over half of all book objections in Florida during the 2022-3 school year came from Clay and Escambia County.
DeSantis signed several pieces of anti-woke legislation that made it easier to take books off the shelves of the state’s public schools. But things went so far that PEN America, an advocacy group that opposes censorship, filed what it described as a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit claiming that the Escambia County School District violated First Amendment rights when it removed hundreds of titles from school library shelves for review, including dictionaries with definitions of sexual conduct.
These attacks on books have had a lot of impact, and not just on education. Despite Walters’ claims that Raichik’s appointment would make “Oklahoma schools safer for kids and friendly to parents,” schools and teachers in Oklahoma have already been subjected to threats after posts appeared on Libs of TikTok.
RELATED STORY: Oklahoma schools official amplifies Libs of TikTok, bomb threats ensue
But that’s not unusual. Research by the progressive analysis group Media Matters for America found there were dozens of bomb threats, death threats, and harassment targeting schools, hospitals, libraries, and Pride events, especially drag shows, that were made shortly after posts appeared on Raichik’s virulently anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok. The social media account reposts videos of users sharing liberal views, sometimes editing them, adding derisive conservative commentary.
In August 2023, The Oklahoman reported how Walters came under fire after he shared a Libs of TikTok post that featured a video of a Tulsa elementary school librarian entering a classroom with books in her hand and laughing as she lip sync’s a Ludacris song.
The caption in the original TikTok video posted by the librarian, the assistant director of a grassroots literacy nonprofit, read: “My radical liberal agenda is teaching kids to love books and be kind.”
But the Libs of TikTok post altered the caption to read: “POV: Teachers in your state are dropping like flies but you are still just not quite finished pushing your woke agenda.” The post also was edited to include the librarian’s school biography identifying her and where she works. And it wasn’t long before bomb threats were made to Tulsa-area schools and the librarian received a death threat.
In its story on Tuesday about Raichik’s appointment, The Oklahoman mentioned other Libs of TikTok posts linked to Oklahoma:
Another “Libs of TikTok” post identified a Western Heights Public Schools principal as a drag performer and accused various Oklahoma school districts of having “pornographic” books in their libraries.
But none of this history seemed to bother Walters. He gave Fox News this statement:
“Chaya Raichik and I have developed a strong working relationship to rid schools of liberal, woke indoctrinators, union smut peddlers, and Epstein Island advocates. Oklahoma is ground zero to take back our schools from the radical leftists. I am proud to have her as a fierce defender of conservative values.”
Meanwhile, Popular Information said the proposed legislation suggests “that the enormous number of books being taken off the shelves of Florida schools has become a political problem for Florida Republicans” in a state that was in the “vanguard of removing books” from schools.
However, Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy, who introduced the legislation, told Politico that he was not against the book bans per se but only the quantity. “I’m happy that we are digging in and trying to remove reading material that is inappropriate for our children. But I think [book challengers] really need to be respectful of the amount of books that they are pouring into schools at one time.”
Popular Information reported this response from the book banning activist Bruce Friedman:
Friedman told Action News Jax that “[t]he fees bill will not pass into law” because it would be “political suicide for a conservative.” Even if the bill did pass, Friedman said, “it will fail to stop my efforts.”
Popular Information added that “while the bill represents a shift in the politics of book bans in Florida, it will not solve the issues with Florida’s school libraries” when it comes to the law signed by DeSantis giving residents the right to demand the removal of any library book that “depicts or describes sexual conduct.” In some cases, a lot of the books being removed from school libraries are the result of decisions taken by local school boards to review books in school libraries to ensure they comply with state law.
Popular Information wrote that “real change in Florida’s school libraries” would require repealing the law that led to the book bans.
RELATED STORY: Lawsuit targets Florida school district that removed dictionaries for describing sexual conduct
