OSDE wants to remove certification of teacher after joke Instagram post

EDMOND, Okla. ( KFOR ) – A post from 2019 on an Edmond teacher’s Instagram is causing the Oklahoma State Department of Education to decertify his teaching certificate.

In comparison — Ringling Coach, Phillip Koons, had his teaching certificate for almost two years before it expired. The board at an August meeting decided to begin the suspension process of his certificate.

Oklahoma Watch was the first to report that Edmond Memorial High School’s, Regan Killackey, could soon lose his license after he posted online in 2019. The post was of his family at a costume store, with one of his kids wearing a Donald Trump mask and another holding a plastic toy sword near ‘Trump.’ Killackey was grimacing.

This was enough to be used in an OSDE application to revoke his license.

“Well number one, I was shocked,” said Regan Killackey to News 4 when asked for a reaction. “And number two, I thought it was some sort of mistake or some prank or something like that. Um, I didn’t because my entire career has been in the state of Oklahoma and I’ve been teaching for 21 years. I have been fortunate and blessed to have this career.”

During the last Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting, Killackey was one of several teachers on the list to look into revocation of their certificate.

Oklahoma Watch reported, “but in Killackey’s case, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters prioritized punishing a teacher over political speech he disagreed with to score political points.”

The other thing, Killackey said that he found out about the potential revocation through a different news agency and then found out on July 31 when the agenda for that month’s board meeting was posted.

“It really was shocking,” said Killackey.

“The Supreme Court’s been incredibly clear. I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your ability to say it. It’s the core of First Amendment speech,” said Tommy Adler of Adler Markoff & Associates.

Adler said that if it did get decertified because of that post then Killackey could have an easy case to win. But the taxpayers would be footing the bill for another court case surrounding OSDE and Superintendent Walters.

KFOR reached out to OSDE for comment but didn’t hear back. KFOR also went to the Oliver Hodge Building where the records are kept and asked for the application for revocation of Killackey but was turned away.

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