Judge issues protective order against Ryan Walters, requested by student who's suing him

NORMAN — A Cleveland County judge has formally granted a protective order sought by a Moore Public Schools student against state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters and members of the State Board of Education.

Cleveland Country District Judge Michael Tupper filed the order on Monday, 19 days after he said during a court hearing he would do so. At issue in the case is what authority, if any, the State Board of Education has to order local school districts not to alter sex or gender designations in past school records.

The lawsuit was filed in Cleveland County District Court on Dec. 21 by the Oklahoma Equality Law Center and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice on behalf of the student, identified in the lawsuit under the pseudonym “J. Doe.”

The student wants to change their pronouns in school records. But last September, the Walters-led state Board of Education created an administrative rule prohibiting school districts and local schools from “altering sex or gender designations in past student records" without the board's authorization. The board granted final approval to the rule on Jan. 25 despite court orders from judges in Cleveland and Payne counties that allowed for such changes in student records.

Attorneys for the student claim Walters and Bryan Cleveland, the state Department of Education's former general counsel, already publicly identified the student during a meeting of the state Board of Education and say the protective order is needed to prevent such a disclosure from happening again.

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“We are pleased to have the order entered and see the lawsuit moving forward,” said Leslie Briggs, an attorney for the student.

Dan Isett, a spokesman for Walters and the Board of Education, said the order "is not a protective order against Superintendent Walters and the State Board. The order is a standard device used by judges in civil matters to govern discovery and the production of exhibits. The plaintiff requested that the judge enter a one-sided order with extreme provisions - like one that would require every member of the media that attended hearings give their names to plaintiff’s attorneys. The judge denied that request and made it clear that any protective order would apply mutually to both sides."

Isett didn't answer a question about whether Walters would dispute the student's claim about having identified the student in a public meeting.

The proposed order initially submitted by the student's attorneys had a paragraph that read: "In the event of any disclosure in any courtroom proceeding, the court shall instruct members of the public attending the proceeding not to disclose any identifying information. In such event, all media members in attendance will be required to provide their names to ensure no identifying information is used in any media reports."

In the final order, that paragraph reads: "In the event of any disclosure of identifying information in any courtroom proceeding, the Court shall instruct members of the media and public attending the proceeding not to disclose any identifying information." Tupper has said he believes hearings in the case should be open to the public.

What does the protective order against Ryan Walters specify?

According to the order, the student should be referred to by their pseudonym, although the student will have to disclose their legal name to the judge and Walters’ attorneys. All attorneys on both sides cannot disclose the identities of the student or their parent except for narrowly defined legal purposes. People to whom the identity is disclosed for those reasons also are bound by the order. No identifying information regarding the plaintiffs may be disclosed to the media, or during any public courtroom proceeding.

The student’s attorneys made an initial request for a protective order to Tupper on April 15, and after confusion over who was representing Walters and the board — due to Cleveland's departure as the education department's general counsel , in March — they made a renewed request on May 14.

During the July 3 hearing, Tupper told attorneys for both sides the language in the proposed order – particularly concerning disclosure of confidential information – needed to make clear it applied to both sides and that the order could be revisited. Tupper gave the attorneys until July 12 to prepare the updated language.

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In addition to Walters and the board, the individual board members appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt — Don Burdick, Sarah Lepak, Kendra Wesson, Katie Quebedeaux and Zachary Archer — also are named as defendants. Jason Reese, who now serves as the attorney for Walters and the board in the case, has argued that individual board members should not be listed as defendants, only the board itself. Reese also wants the lawsuit moved to Oklahoma County. Tupper hasn’t ruled on either of those requests.

Walters has been a fierce critic of those who choose not to use the pronouns “he” or “she.” After a January board meeting in which the rules in question were approved, he said, “We’re not going to tolerate the woke Olympics in our schools, left-wing ideologues trying to push in this radical gender theory. It is the most radical concept we’ve ever come across in K-12 education, that you can be gender fluid (or) change your gender constantly.”

During the lawsuit’s brief time in federal court — before a judge remanded it back to state court ― Walters and the board, in a written motion, likened transgender status to “routine personal information.” U.S. District Judge David Russell thought otherwise and granted the student’s request to proceed with the lawsuit under a pseudonym, a decision Tupper adopted when the case entered his courtroom.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Judge issues protective order against Ryan Walters, requested by student who's suing him