Oklahoma’s top education official is under investigation after sexually explicit images allegedly appeared on his office television during a meeting late last week.
Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction, is being investigated by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office after two board of education members said they saw a video featuring naked women on his TV while a parent spoke during a closed-door executive session on Thursday.
The video allegedly featured “multiple nude women” and “some sort of ‘chiropractic table,’” according to board member Ryan Deatherage, the Oklahoma politics site NonDoc reported.
Becky Carson, the other board member who reportedly saw the video, told the outlet that when she asked Walters to turn it off, he appeared confused.
Walters — a staunch conservative who has made headlines for backing the banning of books he claims contain pornography and pushing to “put Bibles in every classroom across Oklahoma” — released a statement Sunday saying that “any suggestion that a device of mine was used to stream inappropriate content on the television set is categorically false.”
He also slammed the accusations as “the most absurd, false and gutter political attack from a desperate failing establishment.”
On Monday, however, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services had requested an investigation, with support from the state’s Republican leaders, including Gov. Kevin Stitt.
The spokesperson, Aaron Brilbeck, added the investigation was in its early stages, and said it was not yet clear whether any laws were broken.
With News Wire Services
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